interpreted by Maurice Cole
Sonata, Op. 57 (Apassionata), First and Second Movements
The title was given to this Sonata by Cranz, Beethoven's publisher, without the composer's authority. It was written, along with several other works, while Beethoven was planning his only Opera, Fidelio, in 1806. His biographer, Schindler, says that he 'composed it straight-away, from beginning to end, during a short period of rest at the house of his friend, Count Brunswick', to whom it is dedicated.
There is in the opening movement (which doubtless suggested the name), a matured, concentrated power and a sombre tenderness that we find in equal measure in scarcely any of his earlier keyboard works. When Schindler asked the meaning of the work, Beethoven is said to have replied 'Read Shakespeare's Tempest'. That does not mean that the composer had the play in mind when he wrote the music, but something of the scope and force of the play's emotional life may be paralleled in the music, if one wishes to make such comparisons.
The first movement has a minor-key first main tune of nervous energy, dark and mysterious. Note the four-note figure in the bass, in the third phrase. It is very similar to that which plays so important a part in the first movement of the Fifth Symphony.
The mood is changed for a moment by the opening strain of the second main tune, a happy, singing, major-key melody. We shall find that the composer makes magnificent use of that when he comes to the working out or 'development' of his ideas. Another part of the second main tune is in agitated mood.
The whole course of the long movement is dramatic, from its striking first phrase until the same motif dies away in the depths at the end.
In the second movement we hear again how finely Beethoven, after a first movement full of excitement and stress, lets down the tension in the next, without making too violent a contrast. Here we have, as slow movement, a set of three variations on a beautiful subdued melody. Note how its emotional effect is enhanced by its being played in the lower half of the keyboard.
The first variation introduces a syncopated left-hand part, the melody being given out in detached notes. In the second variation the tune is in the midst of a gentle ripple of arpeggios. The last variation has a rapidly-running accompaniment, and part of the melody is syncopated. Then it returns in simple form, and when we expect a final chord, the composer, with a very different one, twice repeated, sounds a questioning note, before plunging into the last movement. for which, however, we shall have to wait until tomorrow evening.
