CCV. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van: Piano Sonata #29 in B-Flat Major, Op. 106

CCV. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van (1770-1827)

Two versions

Piano Sonata #29 in B-Flat Major, Op. 106 (1818)
1. Allegro
2. Scherzo: Assai vivace
3. Adagio sostenuto
4. Introduzione: Largo. Allegro -- Fuga: Allegro risoluto
Yuja Wang, piano
(44:37)

1. Allegro (10:46)
2. Scherzo: Assai vivace (2:43)
3. Adagio sostenuto (17:12)
4. Introduzione: Largo. Allegro -- Fuga: Allegro risoluto (12:20)
Maurizio Pollini, piano

Let's get serious.

A letter to his pupil, Ferdinand Ries, dated April 19, 1819:

"Forgive all the trouble I am causing you. I cannot conceive how so many faults got into the copy of the Sonata; they are probably owing to my no longer being able to keep a copyist of my own. Circumstances have brought all this about, and may the Lord send improvement until the ... is in a better state! But for that a full twelvemonth is needed. It is really terrible, how this affair has been going on, and what has become of my annuity, and no one can say what will be, until the said year is over. If the Sonata should not be the right thing for London, I could send another, or you could also leave out the Largo [God forbid! -LS], and begin at once with the Fugue in the last movement, or the first movement, Adagio, and for the third, the Scherzo and the Largo and All°. risoluto. I leave this to you to do as you think best. The Sonata was written under painful circumstances. For it is hard to write almost for the sake of bread; and to that I have now come.

As to London, we will correspond further on the subject. It would certainly be the only salvation for me, so as to extricate myself from this wretched, oppressive plight. I am never well, and never able to accomplish what, under better conditions, would be possible."

First Movement

The first subject is divided into two sections:

A descending Major or Minor Third (red circle) is a constant motif in this gargantuan piano sonata. Beethoven repeats this fanfare, then after a fermata, introduces the second part:

with gorgeous three-part writing, Beethoven moves stepwise with the ascending third going up by whole steps three times: B-Flat to D; C to E-Flat; and D to F (red arrow) ... and to yet another fermata on the dominant ... (blue arrow) here he begins again an octave higher, finally landing on the tonic with a full close (black star).

Episode (green arrow)

Second subject

After pounding out the initial motif in D Major (bars before the blue arrow), and the ensuing 12 bars of same (blue arrow), we arrive at the new subject in the submediant (G Major) (red arrow) ...

**

After much wandering in remote key centers, Beethoven returns to the initial motif (blue) -- and much decorated, the second rising-third motif (red) again resolves on the dominant (black) -- but here, Beethoven never gives us that tonic closure he did in the exposition.

Just a taste of the analytic rabbit holes one can descend into -- now some plain-spoken words:

Second Movement (12:02)

As light and gentle as a frog hopping over lily pads! But after varying the dotted eighth-sixteenth figure for 45 bars, he turns it over to the Parallel Minor (B-Flat Minor):

(sounds like the Eroica theme in minor, doesn't it?)

He then moves to a Presto in 2/4; a short bravura cadenza, a 16th-note shake, and then returns to the main theme:

Third Movement (14:45)

This is an earth-shaker.

What I hear in most of Beethoven's late works is a perfect combination of intense grief, longing, despair -- even hopelessness -- combined with a kind of idealized hope for the future -- in heaven, or in the true feelings emanating from his much misunderstood heart.

It's all there in this movement, almost like no other.

In the rich, melancholy key of F-Sharp Minor. Also notice the indication Una corda. Beethoven uses the soft pedal often in this movement.

Look how he spins out a simple triad into a universe of notes, in three voices, no less ...

And later, in thrilling up-and-down 32nd-notes :

and ends on a Picardy third:

Fourth Movement (32:19)

Here is the pinnacle of a late Beethoven piano sonata. He seems to be fitfully improvising in the first few (unmeasured) bars:

He breaks into an Allegro -- stops himself with more unmeasured bars of flourish, and is off again with a titanic fugue:

The calm before the final tempest:

Look at those low E-Flat trills!

In the final 12 bars, the trills -- now in the treble -- rise higher and higher until a firm couple of V-I cadences bring this masterpiece to a conclusion: