We often think of Beethoven as a solitary genius working entirely apart from external influences. In reality, he rarely composed anything without a reason, and usually this reason was monetary. On 30 April 1820, Beethoven wrote to the publisher Adolf Martin Schlesinger:
I will gladly let you have new sonatas — but not at a lower price than 40 ducats each. Hence a work consisting of three sonatas would cost 120 ducats. (Beethoven Letters No. 1021)
These were Beethoven’s final three great piano sonatas composed between 1820 and 1822. Beethoven later agreed to 90 ducats (at the time about £40) for the three sonatas and wrote to Schlesinger on 20 September 1820,
The first is quite ready save for correcting the copy, and I am working uninterruptedly at the other two.” (Letters No. 1033)
Lewis Lockwood writes:
Beethoven’s pianistic imagination is stamped on every page of these [last] three sonatas. Deaf as he was, his sustained ability to compose at the keyboard — to use his fingers to unleash his imagination — must have released a wealth of new ideas. Undreamed-of sonorities and multivariate figuration patterns appear in each of these works, exploiting both keyboard and pedals in ways that went beyond even his most innovative earlier keyboard works. We find arpeggiated cadenzalike passages through several octaves; rapid parallel thirds and sixths; delicate figurations; use of una corda [soft] pedal effects; and sustained trills in extreme registers against continuing melodic and contrapuntal lines in other parts. In each case these pianistic effects were grounded in the structural marrow of the individual movement and of the work as a whole. Moreover, each sonata has an idiosyncratic design in which the form arises … dramatically from the material. (Beethoven, p. 385)
The Opus 109 Piano Sonata No. 30 has three movements, but the first two are quite short, with the finale being an elaborate theme and variations. Although the last movement begins and ends slowly, there is no authentic slow movement in this sonata.
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Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major (Opus 109), 1820
The great Andras Schiff.
The first movement Vivace of the Piano Sonata No. 30 begins with a gently flowing two-note rhythmic pattern in alternating hands, as if Beethoven is experimenting with various intervals. But after just 8½ measures, an Adagio fantasia takes over. When the two-note pattern returns, it becomes more elaborate and thicker with chords and interwoven melodies until the Adagio fantasia interrupts again. These two parts are never integrated. (Consensus is that this movement began as a bagatelle or a piano exercise.)
William Kinderman notes:
The first movement of op. 109 reflects Beethoven’s intense interest at this time with parenthetical structures that enclose musical passages within contrasting sections. (Beethoven, p. 240)
The second movement of the Piano Sonata No. 30 is even shorter than the first. Marked Prestissimo, the 6/8 time helps gives it the feel of a fast aggressive scherzo (although without a trio) that races along with only a couple brief quiet respites.
The Piano Sonata No. 30 is only about a third over by the time the last movement finale begins with an Andante theme resembling a Baroque sarabande. Although it might not be immediately evident, this movement is a theme and six variations. The movement starts slowly, but Variation 2 reminds us of the two-note rhythmic pattern that began the sonata and Variation 3 rachets up the tempo. Variation 5 is fast as well, and also slyly introduces some fugal passages that seem to come out of nowhere. Despite the changes in tempo and time signature, the movement flows organically and seems quite free in structure. Only an examination of the score reveals that it’s built almost entirely from 8-measure blocks.
A coda brings back the initial Andante theme, much like in Bach’s Goldberg Variations, signaling the end of a voyage that brings us back where we started, but with experience and revelations that color our understanding.
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Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major (Opus 109), 1820
London-born Misuzu Tanaka performing in a studio in Yonkers.
Beethoven dedicated the Piano Sonata No. 30 to Maximiliane Brentano, the daughter of Franz and Antonie Bretano, for whom Beethoven had written a Piano Trio movement in 1812 (Day 254). By the time the sonata was published, she was 19 years old, and Beethoven wrote to her:
A dedication!!! Well, this is not one of those dedications which are used and abused by thousands of people — It is the spirit which unites the noble and finer people of this earth and which time can never destroy. It is this spirit which now speaks to you and which calls you to mind and makes me see you still as a child, and likewise your beloved parents, your most excellent and gifted mother, your father imbued with so many truly good and noble qualities and ever mindful of the welfare of his children.… May you sometimes think of me with a feeling of kindness — My most heartfelt wishes. May heaven bless your life and the lives of all of you for ever — Cordially and ever your friend Beethoven. (Anderson, Letters of Beethoven, No. 1062)
On 16 December 1820, soon after completing his Piano Sonata No. 30, Beethoven turned 50 years old.