(MUSIC) OK, I think it’s high time we listened to it! Here is the opening of the introduction: (MUSIC) Now, obviously I argued pretty forcefully that the opening of the Waldstein is predominantly “misterioso” in character, but that is, I suppose a debatable point. In the case of the opening of this introduction, though, there’s no question. The sense of mystery is palpable. One aspect of this is the extremely halting pace at which it moves: Beethoven is a person of extremes, and this is a piece of extremes, certainly of tempo. This introduction is as halting and suspended as the first movement was driven. The tremendous sense of mystery is also due to the material itself, of course. This opening cannot really be called a theme: it's music that is in search of, even groping towards a theme. This is partly due to the persistent presence of silences within this one long phrase. I realize this is by no means a new topic in these lectures, but the use of silence here is so spectacular and so central to the character of the music, it needs to be mentioned. From midway through the first bar, until the end of that massive phrase I played, the music remains stubbornly unresolved, and yet it is broken up by these pregnant pauses. (MUSIC) And silence. (MUSIC) Another silence. (MUSIC) Closer to resolution, but still not there. (MUSIC) And closer still. (MUSIC) And only now do we get a rest which is a proper period, rather than a comma or question mark. Those question marks, of course, are another critical component of the mystery: this opening is even more harmonically unstable than anything in the first movement. That single, nine bar phrase I played for you begins in F major (MUSIC), then moves to a tenuous E major (MUSIC), then we have E minor (MUSIC), then moves towards B major (MUSIC), then keeps moving towards a suggestion of D minor (MUSIC), before finally landing back in F major (MUSIC). It’s a huge number of tonalities within a short space, but what’s more revealing is how distant they are from one another. (MUSIC) So, as Beethoven is groping around in the dark for a theme, he’s further destabilizing the music with this harmonic wandering and with these constant interruptions. So while this music is VERY slow, it is not peaceful: mystery and anxiety are written all over it.