Title: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 (Appassionata / Passionate)
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| Ludwig van Beethoven |
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| Count Franz von Brunswick |
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Composed during 1804 and 1805
First dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick
First edition was published in February 1807 in Vienna
Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 (colloquially known as the Appassionata, meaning "passionate" in Italian) is among the three famous piano sonatas of his middle period. One of his greatest and most technically challenging piano sonatas, the Appassionata was considered by Beethoven to be his most tempestuous piano sonata until the twenty-ninth piano sonata (known as the Hammerklavier), being described as a "brilliantly executed display of emotion and music". 1803 was the year Beethoven came to grips with the irreversibility of his progressively deteriorating hearing. Unlike the early Sonata No. 8, Pathétique,[1] the Appassionata was not named during the composer's lifetime, but was so labeled in 1838 by the publisher of a four-hand arrangement of the work.
The central theme and four variations act as a soothing balm before a pair of dramatic chords announces the finale, a moto perpetuo of explosive dynamic contrasts, capped by a breathless coda of venomous power and intensity. At one memorable performance given by Beethoven, he had a technician on stand-by whose job it was to prize away the broken strings as the Master pummelled the instrument into submission. Thanks to this piece, classical music would never be the same again.
Music
The Sonata is in 3 movements:
- Allegro assai
- Andante con moto
- Allegro ma non troppo - Presto
Allegro assai
A sonata-allegro form in 12/8 time, the first movement progresses quickly through startling changes in tone and dynamics, and is characterised by an economic use of themes.
The main theme, in octaves, is quiet and ominous. It consists of a down-and-up arpeggio in dotted rhythm that cadences on the tonicised dominant, immediately repeated a semitone higher (in G flat). This use of the Neapolitan chord (e.g. the flatted supertonic) is an important structural element in the work, also being the basis of the main theme of the finale. The rhythm of the theme may be based on the English folk song On the Banks of Allen Water. (British folk songs were well known in Vienna at that time, and Beethoven, like Haydn, wrote many arrangements for British publishers. However, the first assignment of that sort to Beethoven were by the Edinburgh publisher George Thomson as late as 1809, so there is no support in that fact for the claim that the rhythm is based on a folk song.)
The second subject is a direct quotation of the first two lines of the folk song, reworked to fit the 12/8 time (the folk song is in 3/4). As in Beethoven's Waldstein sonata, the coda is unusually long, containing quasi-improvisational arpeggios which span most of the [early 19th-century] piano's range. The choice of F-minor becomes very clear when one realises that this movement makes frequent use of the deep, dark tone of the lowest F on the piano, which was the lowest note available to Beethoven at the time.
Andante con moto
A set of variations in D flat major, on a theme remarkable for its melodic simplicity combined with the use of unusually thick voicing and a peculiar counter-melody in the bass. Its sixteen bars (repeated) consist of nothing but common chords, set in a series of four- and two-bar phrases that all end on the tonic. (See image.) The four variations follow:
Var. I: similar to the original theme, with the left hand playing on the off-beats.
Var. II: an embellishment of the theme in sixteenth notes.
Var. III:a rapid embellishment in thirty-second notes. A double variation, with the hands switching parts.
Var. IV:a reprise of the original theme without repeats and with the phrases displaced in register.
The fourth variation cadences deceptively on a soft diminished-7th chord, followed by a much louder diminished-7th that serves as a transition to the finale.
Allegro ma non troppo - Presto
A sonata-allegro in near-perpetual motion in which, very unusually, only the second part is directed to be repeated. It has much in common with the first movement, including extensive use of the Neapolitan sixth chord and several written-out cadenzas. The movement climaxes with a faster coda introducing a new theme which in turn leads into an extended final cadence in F minor. According to Donald Francis Tovey this is one of only a handful of Beethoven's works in sonata form that ends in tragedy (the others being the C minor Piano Trio, Piano Sonata Op. 27 no. 2 ("Moonlight"), Violin Sonata Op. 30 no. 2, and the C# minor Quartet.)
Beethoven’s Appasionata (Full Movement) video:
Beethoven’s Appasionata (Score) pdf file:
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