Beethoven’s 30th Sonata is to the Hammerklavier what a koan is to a novel: ultra-compressed, terse, deeply enigmatic (so enigmatic, in fact, that we can’t even decide if it’s got 2 or 3 movements). It marks a return to intimate structures after the vastness of the Hammerklavier, but despite its beauty and warmth it’s as deeply radical as anything which Beethoven wrote. In terms of large-scale structure, the Op.109 does a couple of very interesting things. There is the fact that Mvt 1 is extremely short, being built more around contrast (the old, “classical” ideal), and containing little thematic development (the new “romantic” ideal that Beethoven had done so much to build). Perhaps because of this, Mvt 2 (to pick up the slack?) is also in sonata form (a scherzo without the trio is also a good reading), another very unusual step. Add to this the fact that for the first time in Beethoven’s sonata output the focus is now the last movement (instead of the first, which is the norm), which is considerably longer than both Mvt 1 + 2. This pattern – of having a slow and large final movement which ends the piece with a kind of devotional intensity – is repeated in the two sonatas which come after the Op.109. The relationship between Mvt 1 & 2 is also pretty interesting: they sort of function as a combined counterweight to Mvt 3. They are joined together (not by an attaca indication, which is unusual) by the thinnest of tissues – the holding down of the pedal. Both main (opening) themes of both movements are also very similar: the basses of both are built around a simple descending scale. The sonata as a whole is also unified by the motivic interval of a 3rd. The 1st theme of the Mvt 1 has a principal melody (highlighted as quarter-notes) which basically consists of paired 3rds (G#-B, F#-A, E-G#), as is the 1st theme of the Mvt 2 (the RH basically goes G-E, B-G, E-G). The theme of Mvt 3 opens with a 3rd, which recurs throughout the variations. In Var.2 the 2nd and 3rd notes in the RH are separated by a 3rd, and the pattern recurs (F#-D#, then G#-E, F#-D#, F#-A#). In Var.3, the pattern is obvious: both RH and LH move outward in 3rd. In Var.4, the rhythmically important notes are also separated by 3rds (for the most part: B-G#-E in the opening phrased, for instance). In Var.5 the fugue subject closely resembles the sonata’s opening principal melody, and so on. Last thing to note: the last movement, a theme and variations (unusual end to a sonata), contains much of Beethoven’s most beautiful writing. The bit from 35:19 to 36:17 (including the theme’s re-entrance at 35:40) must count as one of the most transcendent 1-min segments of music ever written. In fact, the 3 most lyrically intense/ecstatic/generous 1-min segments of music Beethoven ever wrote are probably all found in the last movements of his last three sonatas (the closing chorale of the 31st, and the brief moment in the 32nd when the theme and variation form is abandoned.) MVT I EXPOSITION 00:00 – Theme 1 00:11 – Theme 2 (the culmination of Beethoven’s experimentation with quasi-recitative structures in sonata form. Note the sudden changes of harmony.) DEVELOPMENT 01:05 – Theme 1 RECAPITULATION 01:38 – Theme 1 01:50 – Theme 2 (Note the violent transition to C Maj at 2:11, which Levit emphasises very well [21:27]) 02:52 – Theme 1 03:22 – CODA MVT II EXPOSITION 03:42 – Theme 1 (note the bass line, which is what the development will pick up on) 03:49 – Theme 2 (or the start of Theme Group 2) DEVELOPMENT 04:31 – Theme 1’s bass line is presented in canon in RH 04:42 – Theme 1’s bass line is presented against itself in inversion RECAPITULATION 05:02 – Theme 1 05:14 – Theme Group 2 05:49 – CODA MVT III 06:02 – Theme 08:15 – VAR.1. A precursor of the modern piano waltz, albeit in clear triple time 10:21 – VAR.2. Three variations in one, the second of which features lovely contrapuntal writing [10:42; 11:33] and last of which is especially moving [10:55; 11:43] 11:56 – VAR.3 12:12 – VAR.4 14:53 – VAR.5. A spectacular little chorale-fugue, erupting out of an essentially lyrical movement. Oddly enough, Beethoven does not mark the final two variations in the score, instead leaving only tempo indications. No-one is quite sure why this is. 15:45 – VAR.6. This single variation telegraphs essentially the whole final movement of the 31st sonata. It’s built essentially on keeping the same basic rhythm while further subdividing the repeated B of each theme. This technique of using subdivision is taken to the extreme in the 32nd’s 2nd movement, where all the *individual variations* are built from subdivision (here, all the subdivision is contained in a single variation.) 17:50 – CODA. The theme is repeated, as if nothing has happened. As is the case with the Goldberg Variations, the repetition brings you “back home.”

• published: 23 Jan 2017
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