Minuet into Scherzo Video (DVD)

The stylized Minuet, the complex and rigid format that started out as a social dance of French origin for two people was perfected by Haydn and Bach, not only in the music that accompanies the dance but also in longer musical forms such as symphonies. Beethoven radically turned the conventional on its ear, with the transformation to the Scherzo, by often transposing a repeated phrase, creating the illusion of starting out in the wrong key and then rectifying. This revolution in music has become a standard in the creation of symphonies. This transformation is beautifully shown in this film, which shows the Minuet at its finest, and the musical conversion to what is now considered a standard, the Scherzo. Selections performed :Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 4 (Trio extract), Haydn’s Symphony No. 99 (Trio extract), Eroica Symphony (Scherzo complete). Piano Sonata in C, Op. 2 No. 3 (1st movement complete).

(28 minutes)