Sonata in G major, Op.79 (Sonatine)

Beethoven himself referred to his shortest piano sonata both as a “sonatina” and as an “easy sonata.” It is not as easy as all that, however. One can imagine Therese Malfatti - whose limited piano technique it was probably designed to accommodate - having more problems with it than with Für Elise, which might well have been written for her at about the same time in 1809 or 1810. Certainly, the first movement, which the composer describes in the tempo heading as a German dance, proceeds at a fair pace. While the repeated minor thirds in the development section - which have given the work its “Cuckoo” nickname - are amusing, the left- hand leaps that precede each one of them are awkward for the ordinary pianist to execute. Therese would probably have been more comfortable with the easy going Andante, an early prototype of the gondola songs among Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words, and the cheerful little Vivace rondo finale.