Sonata in C major Op.2 No.3 (1795)

Conventionally, a recital programme including one of Beethoven’s earliest piano sonatas and the Pathétique would end with the later and more celebrated work. In fact, the Sonata in C major is the bigger of the two – and not only because, like the other works in the Op. 2 set, it is in four movements. The first movement, the Adagio and the finale are all longer than those of the Pathétique – and not only because it is expanded by virtuoso material. It would be six years before Beethoven described a sonata as “quasi una fantasia” but that is what the Sonata in C major is. He could scarcely have made a plainer declaration of his independence not only from Mozart but also from Haydn, his teacher, to whom the first three sonatas are dedicated.

The sudden outburst of fortissimo arpeggios following the quiet introduction of the modest main theme of the Allegro con brio, the discursive second subject including themes in both G minor and G major, the development section that excludes both those themes and includes cascades of broken chords, the harmonic improvisation at the end of the recapitulation, the cadenza that follows it, these are all fantasia characteristics.

While looking to long-term unity by opening the E-major Adagio with a main theme similar in shape to that of the first movement, Beethoven continues to indulge the fantasia tendency with an E-minor episode of hand-crossing, the left hand alighting on dissonant intervals above the right to pick out syncopated two-note sighs. It is also in the long-term interest, incidentally, that shortly after its recall in E major the opening theme is forcibly redirected into C major, the tonality of the other three movements.

The fantasia tendency is kept firmly under control in the rigorously organised, contrapuntally animated Scherzo and the thematically linked trio section. It takes some time too to influence the course of the Allegro assai, a brilliant sonata rondo incorporating a sonorous chorale episode that was to find an echo in the last movement of Brahms’s Third Piano Sonata. But towards the end, in a last-minute fantasia inspiration, just when the sonata seems to be arriving at its ultimate destination, it seems to lose its way, pausing on a long trill, losing pace, taking a wrong turn and picking up speed to find the exit only in the last few bars.