Sonata in F minor Op.57 (“Appassionata”) (1804-5)

Although the “Appassionata” title is not the composer’s own – it was invented by a Hamburg publisher with a talent for musical nicknames – it is aptly applied to an essentially and inescapably impassioned inspiration. Beethoven is on a tireless, if ultimately fruitless quest here for the emotional stability represented by the theme and variations in the Andante con moto second movement.

The opening bars of the Allegro assai present the main theme in quiet octaves with slightly ominous harmonic implications but not, at this stage, in any particularly intense state of mind. But then, syncopated in heavy fortissimo chords and pursued by obsessive triplet rhythms, it takes on a violently unhappy aspect. Just as suddenly, the theme is inverted and clarified into a peaceful anticipation of the stability to be postulated in the Andante con moto – but not for long. The always agitated central section of the movement allows only brief glimpses of the new theme. Towards the end it reappears in an even more explicit anticipation of the object of the quest– but again not for long. A quicker coda sweeps it away into yet another expression of desperate urgency.

The ideal of stability is represented in the Andante con moto by a characteristically imaginative use of classical variation conventions. The four variations are all in the same key, all in the same metre, all in the same tempo, all in the same shape. While the duration of the notes becomes progressively shorter and the tessitura gradually higher, to create a foreground impression of movement and intensification in colour, the background remains static rather than dynamic and reassuringly the same.

The slow movement ends, after a final reappearance of the original theme, on a loud dissonance, out of which the Allegro ma non troppo explodes without so much as a pause. Beethoven was to adopt that device in several later works but never more effectively than here. The harmonies are the same as at the ominous beginning of the work and the activity escalates into a movement of sustained turbulence, with intermittent chromatic panic and a quick ending which excludes all hope of the once envisioned peace in a last expression of violence.

Fifteen years before he wrote the Sonata in E major Op109, Beethoven had completed a Sonata in F minor which uses classical variation conventions in a similar way but with quite different results. Aptly labelled “Appassionata” by a Hamburg publisher with a talent for musical nicknames, it is an essentially and inescapably impassioned work, a tireless, if ultimately fruitless quest for the ideal of stability represented by the D flat major variations in the Andante con moto second movement.

The opening bars of the Allegro assai present the main theme in one of its two emotional aspects: it is in F minor but not, at this stage, in any particularly intense mood. But then, syncopated in heavy fortissimo chords and pursued by obsessive triplet rhythms, it takes on a violently unhappy aspect. Almost immediately the theme is inverted and clarified in a peaceful A flat major second subject, but not for long. The always agitated development section allows only brief glimpses of the second subject. In the recapitulation, on the other hand, it reappears not in F minor, which would have been one conventional possibility, but in D flat major in what must surely be a deliberate anticipation of the second movement. But again not for long. A quicker coda takes the other alternative and sweeps the second subject into yet another expression of F minor urgency.

The ideal of D flat major stability is represented in the Andante con moto by a characteristically imaginative use of classical variation conventions. The four variations are all in the same key, all in the same 2/4 metre, all in the same tempo, all in the same shape. While the duration of the notes becomes progressively shorter and the tessitura gradually higher, to create a foreground impression of movement and intensification in colour, the background remains static rather than dynamic and reassuringly the same.

The slow movement ends, after a final reappearance of the original theme, on a loud dissonance, out of which the Allegro ma non troppo explodes without so much as a pause. Beethoven was to adopt that device in several later works but never more effectively than here. The key is F minor and the activity escalates into a movement of sustained turbulence, with intermittent chromatic panic and a quick coda which excludes all hope of the once envisioned peace in a last expression of F minor violence.

“Appassionata” is another nickname that has stuck even though it has nothing to do with Beethoven himself. It was invented by the Hamburg publisher Cranz, apparently for a piano-duet arrangement he issued in 1838. While a four-hand arrangement of a work that depends for its effect partly on challenging the resources of two hands could certainly be described as “scarcely appropriate,” the “Appassionata” nickname is by no means inappropriate. What the sonata is passionate about is its quest for the stability and serenity represented by the central Andante con moto in D flat major, a vision which is briefly glimpsed in the first movement but which entirely eludes the last.

Beethoven seems to have thought long and hard about how he should end the work. The unhappy resolution was decided on a long walk in a long country walk with a pupil, Ferdinand Ries, who remembered how “he had hummed or sometimes even howled to himself the entire way.” When Ries asked the composer what it was, he replied, “A theme for the last Allegro of the sonata has occurred to me.” On returning to his room, Ries goes on, “he rushed to the piano without taking off his hat… He stormed for at least an hour with the new finale.”

The opening Allegro assai is based largely on the theme which is presented in F minor but not, at this stage, in any particularly intense mood in the first few bars. But then, syncopated in heavy fortissimo chords and pursued by obsessive triplet rhythms, it takes on a violently unhappy aspect. Almost immediately the theme is turned upside down and clarified in a peaceful A flat major second subject, but not for long. The always agitated development section allows only brief glimpses of the second subject. In the recapitulation, however, it reappears in a serene D flat major in what must surely be a deliberate anticipation of the second movement. But again not for long. A quicker coda takes sweeps the second subject into yet another expression of F minor urgency.

The ideal of D flat major stability is demonstrated in the Andante con moto by a characteristically imaginative use of classical variation conventions. The four variations are all in the same key, all in the same 2/4 metre, all in the same tempo, all in the same shape. While the duration of the notes becomes progressively shorter and the tessitura gradually higher, to create a foreground impression of movement and intensification in colour, the background remains static rather than dynamic and reassuringly the same.

The slow movement ends, after a final reappearance of the original theme, on a loud dissonance, out of which the Allegro ma non troppo explodes without so much as a pause. Beethoven was to adopt that device in several later works but never more effectively than here. The key is F minor and the activity escalates into a movement of sustained turbulence, with intermittent chromatic panic and a quick coda which excludes all hope of the once envisioned peace in a last expression of F minor violence.

“Appassionata,” like “The Moonlight” attached to another Beethoven piano sonata, is a nickname that has stuck even though it has nothing to do with the composer himself. The invention of an ambitious Hamburg publisher with a talent for such things, it would have been discarded, or at least discredited, long ago if it were not so aptly applied to an essentially and inescapably impassioned inspiration. What the “Appassionata” Sonata is passionate about is its quest for the stability and serenity represented by the central Andante con moto in D flat major, a vision which is briefly glimpsed in the first movement but which entirely eludes the last.

Beethoven seems to have thought long and hard about how he should end the work. The unhappy resolution was decided on a long country walk with a pupil, Ferdinand Ries, who remembered how “he had hummed or sometimes even howled to himself the entire way.” When Ries asked the composer what it was, he replied, “A theme for the last Allegro of the sonata has occurred to me.” On returning to his room, Ries goes on, “he rushed to the piano without taking off his hat… He stormed for at least an hour with the new finale.”

The opening Allegro assai is based largely on the theme which is presented in F minor but not, at this stage, in any particularly intense mood in the first few bars. But then, syncopated in heavy fortissimo chords and pursued by obsessive triplet rhythms, it takes on a violently unhappy aspect. Almost immediately the theme is turned upside down and clarified in a peaceful A flat major second subject, but not for long. The always agitated development section allows only brief glimpses of the second subject. In the recapitulation, however, it reappears in a serene D flat major in what must surely be a deliberate anticipation of the second movement. But again not for long. A quicker coda takes sweeps the second subject into yet another expression of F minor urgency.

The ideal of D flat major stability is demonstrated in the Andante con moto by a characteristically imaginative use of classical variation conventions. The four variations are all in the same key, all in the same 2/4 metre, all in the same tempo, all in the same shape. While the duration of the notes becomes progressively shorter and the tessitura gradually higher, to create a foreground impression of movement and intensification in colour, the background remains static rather than dynamic and reassuringly the same.

The slow movement ends, after a final reappearance of the original theme, on a loud dissonance, out of which the Allegro ma non troppo explodes without so much as a pause. Beethoven was to adopt that device in several later works but never more effectively than here. The key is F minor and the activity escalates into a movement of sustained turbulence, with intermittent chromatic panic and a quick coda which excludes all hope of the once envisioned peace in a last expression of violence.