Фортепианная соната № 30 до мажор, соч. 109 Людвига ван Бетховена

Piano sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109, composed in 1820, is the third to last of his piano sonatas. In it, after the huge Hammerklavier Sonata, Op. 106, Beethoven returns to a smaller scale and a more intimate character. It is dedicated to Maximiliane Brentano, the daughter of Beethoven's long standing friend Antonie Brentano, for whom Beethoven had already composed the short Piano Trio in B major WoO 39 in 1812. Musically, the work is characterised by a free and original approach to the traditional sonata form. Its focus is the third movement, a set of variations that interpret its theme in a wide variety of individual ways.

Work on Op. 109 can be traced back to early in 1820, even before Beethoven's negotiations with Adolf Schlesinger, the publisher of his last three sonatas. Recent research suggests that de had asked Beethoven for a composition for his piano anthology The Vienna Pianoforte School, and that Beethoven had interrupted work on the Missa Solemnis. In the end, though, he offered Starke numbers 7–11 of the Bagatelles, Op. 119.

There is an April entry in Beethoven's conversation book describing a "small new piece" that is, according to William Meredith, identical to the first movement of Op. 109. In fact, the outline of the movement makes the idea of a Bagatelle interrupted by fantasia like interludes seem very plausible. Beethoven's secretary Franz Oliva then allegedly suggested the idea of using this "small piece" as the beginning of the sonata that Schlesinger wanted. Sieghard Brandenburg has put forward the theory that Beethoven had originally planned a two movement sonata, omitting the first movement. Apparently some of the motivic characteristics that link the first movement with the others were only introduced later. Alexander Wheelock Thayer, on the other hand, put forward the view that the beginning of a sonata in E minor by Beethoven was not developed further and had nothing to do with Op. 109. For the third movement, Beethoven first sketched a set of about six variations, then a set of nine, and finally a continuity draft for a set of six. The differences in character between the individual variations seem to be smaller in the nine variation version than in the final printed edition, but according to Kay Dreyfus this already indicates a "process of exploration and re discovery of the theme".

It has not been conclusively established whether Beethoven completed the sonata in the autumn of 1820 or only in 1821. In letters to his publisher in 1820, he was already speaking of "Fertigstellung" (completion); but it is unclear whether Beethoven meant completed concepts, drafts or a fair copy that could be dispatched. The first edition was published by Schlesinger in Berlin in November 1821. It contained many errors, since Beethoven had sent the difficult to read autograph score to the Berlin based publisher Schlesinger instead of a fair copy and was prevented by illness from undertaking adequate proof reading of the prints.

With regard to Beethoven's late work, and especially to his late piano sonatas, Op. 109 is particularly noteworthy for its divergence from the norms of sonata form and for its harmonic and structural innovations.

Opus 109 is one of Beethoven's last three, five sonatas that are counted among his late works. The different cut off points arise from the fact that the sonatas from Opus 90 on are varied and contradictory in form and in their predominant musical tendencies. The pianistic means are reduced to leaner, chamber music like voice leading, as in the first movement of Opus 110, or dissolved into recitative like passages, as in the third movement of the same work. These procedures contrast with a heightened virtuosity, a broadening of the form and an increase in overall length, as for example in the Hammerklavier sonata, Op. 106. In Op. 109, reminiscences of the straightforward style of the early, Haydn influenced sonatas contrast with harmony that is sometimes harsh, anticipating the music of the 20th century. This gives special importance to the principles of polyphonic variation, as in the second movement of Op. 109, and consequently the use of baroque forms, especially fugue and fugato.

Throughout the history of music there has been much philosophy and speculation about the character of the individual keys. In Beethoven, E major (frequently described as bright and radiant) and E minor (sad, lamenting) often appear together, as in Op. 14 No. 1, the second Razumovsky quartet and Op. 90. The combination has been said to mitigate both the light and the dark aspects of the music. Then the third movement is – most unusually for a sonata – a theme and variations. Thus the theme in the third movement takes on the role of the slow movement, which is usually the second movement in the standard model. Although the sonata is formally in three movements, many leading musicians and recordings make it sound like two movements by going into the second movement without a pause and then clearly separating the third movement. However, musicologists Jürgen Uhde, de, de and Carl Dahlhaus divide the work into three movements in their detailed analyses.

This movement consists of a theme with six variations of differing character and piano technique.

The movement opens with a 16 bar theme. The dotted notes emphasise the second beat of the bar, giving this song like theme something of the character of a Sarabande. Its "dignified, meditative feel is strengthened by emphasis on the tonic E", which is reached through the falling third in bars 1 and 3, and later through other, wider intervals such as the falling fifth in bar 5 and the rising minor sixth in bar 7. Bars 1–2 are present in various shapes throughout the first eight bars. Bars 1–2 and 5–6 are based on a common thematic shape: G–E–D–B; bars 3–4 and 7–8 are based similarly on G–E–F–A–B.

In extreme contrast to the energy and speed of the previous variation, this one begins with a four bar passage marked cantabile, in quiet, slow crotchets at the tempo of the theme. Its peaceful, static character is emphasised by the repeated B in the top voice. As the sonata progresses to its conclusion, Beethoven intensifies almost every musical parameter to the maximum. Note values intensify the rhythm by decreasing from crotchets through quavers, triplet quavers and semiquavers to demisemiquavers. Contrast of register is increased by alternating very prominent high notes and deep bass notes. From bar 12, long drawn out trills in both hands and from bar 17, raging arpeggios and sequences in the top voice build further towards a climax.