One common theme found throughout Beethoven’s works is that of contrast. Typically, when he publishes works together under one opus number, each one is going to stand out distinctively from the others because of their differences. For the three kids of opus 2, the first is an angsty and lightly dramatic sturm und drang piece, like a high school freshman going through his post-grunge phase, the second [which I didn’t cover] is like the slightly older teen daughter who is perky and smart and runs a nature instagram, and finally this sonata, the most difficult of the three, is like the oldest child going off to college: excited, confident, and bursting with energy. In fact what drew me to this sonata the first time was how, just after the deceptive whisper of an introduction, the second main theme is a giant burst of light, like running out into a field bathed in sunlight. The sonata is relatively conventional, but so bombastic and virtuosic, it almost resembles a concerto for solo piano. This definitely isn’t for the amateur middle and upper class pianists to play around with and charm their family over tea and coffee, this is for Beethoven to dazzle his aristocratic patrons [who he usually didn’t care for but depended on them for support and helping jumpstart his career]. Like the others in the set, this work is in four movements, but because of the difficulty and the length [about a half an hour], some musicologists suggest that he was aspiring to write a breakout symphony, but kept it as a piano piece instead. In the first movement, after the play between charming and brilliance, there is an unusual pause in the music that almost resembles a cadenza, where the music slows down dabbles a bit into murky harmonies, slow rolling chords up and down, completely interrupting the material that came before, something that we will hear again to an extreme degree in the “Tempest” sonata, all before rushing into a fantastic run into the keyboard, playing around with trills, until the “orchestra” comes back in to end off the movement. The slow movement is a typical choral, though he uses four voices, showing that early on he was thinking in therms of the string quartet [another genre he excelled in]. The music slowly develops into a more stoic and heavy e minor segment that predicts the “Romantic” qualities of his later music. Afterward the music is contrasted by a charming scherzo that plays around in light counterpoint, and has a jokingly “serious” C minor trio section. The work ends with a rondo that rushes in through thirds up the keyboard, another dazzling and shinning moment for the pianist to show off. With yet another “cadenza”, the work spirals into a bold and satisfying conclusion. I wish I could go back in time and see the faces of all the Duchesses and Princes and other members of court who were expecting to hear something charming and Mozartian.
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