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emerges and races along gaily, with but a few characteristic inter-ruptions.

Not only does Beethoven eliminate all introductions in his Dmajor sonata, but he detonates a musical explosion as the bold,dramatic first theme erupts at the very beginning with startlingforce. The composer then goes on to fashion a movement ofbrilliant tonal colors, great melodic variety, and continuous har-monic interest.

The profound and deeply moving Adagio constitutes the onlyfull, true slow movement in all the cello sonatas. Although writ-ten quite sparely and imbued with a somewhat remote, distantquality, the music conveys a sublime, introspective, emotionalrichness. In this movement we hear the transcendental Beetho-ven penetrating a realm of musical expression that few have everapproached and almost none have conquered.

After providing the peak experience of the Adagio, Beetho—ven’s inspiration does not flag as he goes on to finish the sonatawith an amazing fugato. In this highly contrapuntal movement,one melody—somewhat ungainly in shape and extremely un-grateful to play—interweaves between the two instruments in anextremely intricate pattern of statements, counterstatements, imi-tations, countermelodies, inversions, and all the other poly-phonic devices that Beethoven’s fertile imagination can conjureup. This movement presents the earliest manifestation of Bee-thoven’s obsession with fugues (as witness the “Hammer-klavier” piano sonata and the Gram Page for string quartet) thatdisringuished the final compositional epoch of his life.

Piano Sana ta:

Bach’s Well- Tempered C/az/ier has been dubbed the Old Testamentof piano music and the thirty-two sonatas of Beethoven the NewTestament. The latter works join Bach’s masterpieces on the loft-iest heights of the solo piano repertoire—if not of all instrumen-tal music. Composed as they were throughout his life, the sona-tas trace Beethoven’s growth and development as a composerand human being, even as they illuminate the transition in musichistory from the Classical to the Romantic periods.

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When Beethoven arrived in Vienna at age twenty-one heStarted composition studies with Haydn—an experience that didlittle to advance Beethoven's skills. The mix of world-renownedcomposer just returned from great triumphs in London and theheadstrong, sublimely confident Beethoven was n0t a happy oneand the relationship between the two men was strained and diffi-cult.

Nevertheless, Beethoven saw fit to dedicate his first piano so-natas—the set of three that make up his Op. 2—to Haydn. Com-posed in 1795 and 1796, the works were written after Beetho-ven had already completed three piano sonatas and two sonatinasthat he did not submit for publication. The simple words on themanuscript, “To Joseph Haydn, Doctor of Music,” express re-spect—but much less affection than, for example, Mozart’s in-scription on his “Haydn” string quartets to his “most celebratedand very dear friend.” The restrained language of the dedicationmay also have something to do with Haydn’s cooler response toBeethoven in comparison to his feelings for Mozart, whomHaydn called “the greatest composer known to me.” In faCt,Haydn often referred to Beethoven only half jokingly as the“Grand Mogul.”

The Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1, openswith the so-called Mannheim rocket, a device much favored bylate eighteenth-century composers in which a brilliant, rapidlyrising figure arrests everyone’s attention at the beginning of apiece. The ascending rocket, which in this case includes a fewnotes of descent, is repeated, extended, and rent with a veritableexplosion of sound to make up the first subject. With barely anytransition, the subsidiary theme follows, quiet and subdued andgenerally downward in melodic direction. Both themes are care-fully considered in the brief development section and are re-peated before the loud, forceful ending.

Beethoven based the Adagio on the slow movement of a pi-ano quartet he had composed in 1785 but had discarded. Al-though the movement sounds like a long song, it includes twothemes that are stated and then brought back in variation.

The third movement carries the title Menuetto, even though itis nor especially dancelike. Rather it maintains a subdued, wistful

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39Beethoven puts the listener on notice that these works are notgoing to be like the typical sonatas of the period. And indeed,right from the Start, the Piano Sonata No. 15 in E flat, Op. 27,No. 1, parts company with all of Beethoven's previous works inthe form.

Far from the expected fast and substantial sonata-allegro move-ment, the first movement of the E-flat sonata starts at a slowtempo with a simple tune that brings to mind a stately dancefrom an eighteenth-century suite. After ruminating a short whileon this subject, Beethoven proceeds without a break into whatsounds like a robust German peasant dance, its bare melodyembellished with rapid figurations. This soon gives way to ashortened reprise of the opening section, creating a movementthat may be short in profundity yet is highly appealing in itsinnocent beauty.

In another departure from standard practice, Beethoven di-rects that the second movement, a scherzo, follow without pause.Particularly striking is the fact that no true melody graces eitherthe opening scherzo section, the middle trio, or the return of thescherzo.

The justification for the paucity of melodic content in thescherzo is made obvious in the Adagio, which also continueswithout pause. The impact of the Adagio theme—one of themost expressive, emotional, and luminous that Beethoven everpenned—is all the more powerful after an essentially themelessmovement. In effect, Beethoven does little more than state andrepeat the predominant Adagio theme and add a short cadenzabefore going on to the connected finale.

Once more going against the established pattern, Beethovenmakes the last movement the most significant, intricate, and pro-found part of the sonata. Forging an organizational scheme thatfalls between a rondo and sonata-allegro, the music surges for-ward with great fire and intensity until, near the end, it builds toa forceful climax, out of which emerges a recollection of theAdagio theme. A short cadenza leads to the brilliant coda thatconcludes the work.

Among the most familiar pieces of music that Beethoven everwrote is the first movement of his Piano Sonata No. 14 in

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C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, “Moonlight,"—and the workmost surrounded with misinformation. Contrary to most assumptions, Beethoven did not write the music to evoke the mood of amoonlit night. Composed in 1801 and published in 1802, thesubtitle was conceived thirty years later by music critic H.F.L,Rellstab, who wrote that the music reminded him of “a boatpassing the scenery of Lake Lucerne in the moonlight.” Nowpermanently attached to the music, the subtitle persists despitethe fact that Beethoven never even visited Lake Lucerne. More-over, not by the wildest stretch of the imagination is it possibleto associate the second and third movements with such a nOCtut-nal scene.

Nor was the “Moonlight” intended as a love song to the dedi-catee of the piece, Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. It is true thatBeethoven was infatuated with the Countess and planned toshow his love by dedicating a piece, his Rondo, Op. 51, No. 2,to her. But he changed his mind when it became necessary, forpolitical reasons, to inscribe a work to Princess Lichnowsky onvery short notice. Ever the pragmatist, Beethoven addressed theRondo to Lichnowsky and then, to make amends, dedicated the“Moonlight” Sonata to Giulietta.

And finally, despite the sonata’s immense popularity, Beetho-ven had reservations about the work. “Everybody is always talk-ing about the C-sharp minor sonata,” he complained to his pupilCarl Czerny in 1802. “Surely I have written better things."

Composed with the same subtitle, “Sonata quasi una Fantasia,"as Op. 27, No. 1, the “Moonlight” finds Beethoven rising to thehighest peaks of creativity and innovation, unfettered by thetraditional restrictions. This achievement is most obvious in thesonata’s overall organization. Unlike a typical sonata of the timethat is in four movements—a big, important sonata-allegro, aslow movement, a scherzo, and a fast, lightweight finale—the“Moonlight” starts with the slow movement, follows with ascherzo, and ends with a movement that has the length, signifi-cance, and intensity of an opening movement.

The familiar Adagio sostenuto conveys the quality of a mas-terly keyboard improvisation, one that convincingly evokes thefeelings and emotions associated with great pain and yearning.

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The movement captures all the passion and intensity of expres-sion that appeared decades later in the highly romantic “charac-ter pieces" of Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, and Mendelssohn.

Liszt calls the second movement, which follows without pause,a “flower between two abysses.” It is, in fact, a comforting inter-lude of relaxation between the agony of the Adagio sostenutoand the fierce energy of the upcoming Presto agitato.

A feverish whirl of notes that quickly races to climax and thenstarts all over again, the Presto agitato comes hard on the heelsof the preceding movement, surging ever forward with an al-most manic energy. (Although not so marked in the score, per-formers usually do not break between the movements.) Writtenmuch like a typical first movement, the Presto constitutes thelongest and most important part of the sonata. Structured in so-nata-allegro form, the first subject is less a melody than a seriesof frenzied arpeggios, and the second subject, although some-what calmer, still continues the rapid figuration that gives thisfinale its powerful, driving impetus. Beethoven caps off themovement with an extended coda that includes somecadenzalike passages before building up to the stunning finalchords.

The subtitle of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 15 in D, Op.28, “Pastoral” (1801), was chosen by music publisher AugustCranz. Although not of Beethoven’s invention, the term aptlydescribes the peaceful, bucolic quality of the music, particularlythe fourth movement. The appellation is appropriate, too, be-cause the repeated bass note that accompanies the principalthemes of both outside movements was associated at that timewith music of a rustic character. The “Pastoral” is, incidentally,the last of Beethoven piano sonatas to follow the traditional four-movement scheme; all the subsequent sonatas contain either twoor three movements.

Over the perseverating bass note Beethoven introduces thetranquil first subject, which he follows with the equally subduedsecond theme, recognized by its somewhat waltzlike rhythm. Af-ter repeating the two themes, Beethoven devotes the entire de-velopment section to the first theme in an ingenious way—pre-senting and repeating the entire theme, its last four measures, its

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