Piano Sonata No. 22 (Beethoven)

Piano sonata written by Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 22 in F major, Op. 54, was written in 1804. It is contemporary to the first sketches of the Symphony No. 5 in C Minor. It is one of Beethoven's lesser known sonatas, overshadowed by its widely known neighbours, the Waldstein and the Appassionata.

Beethoven skips the opening and slow movements and moves on to a minuet in time, with a modulating trio. Anton Kuerti refers to this piece as a parody of uncreative composers, while Andras Schiff refers to it as portraying "Beauty and the Beast." The first theme is written in a rigidly classical style with repetitive phrases that are a caricature of elegance, while the second consists of a bombastic canon in octaves. The movement gradually increases in activity when it garners variations for its main theme. This first movement is in ABABA form where A and B are strongly contrasted themes. Theme A is of minuet dance type in F major that one might find in Joseph Haydn. In contrast, theme B, the trio, is a succession of forte triplets in C major that are played by both hands staccato or legato; the triplets are in octaves (and later in sixths) and with a dialogue between the left and right hands and with many sforzandi to interrupt the meter. The A section repeats in a whole, with a slight variation. Then the B, the trio section, reappears, this time in the tonic key of F major and of considerably shorter length. The opening A theme reappears with more ornaments. After an extended group of trills, there is a brief coda.

The finale, again in F major, is a cheerful moto perpetuo sonata form movement in time with a monothematic exposition. "If the first movement was constipated, then the second movement suffers from the opposite ailment." (Anton Kuerti) This is shown in the piece, as the main melody has a non stop continuous, sixteenth note pattern that does not stop for even a second in this piece. The exposition, contains only one brief theme as it is written above. It starts on F major and modulates to C major, which is the key that ends the exposition. The development is long and extended. It starts on A major and modulates to many different keys, as it passes through a great climax and ends in the tonic key, when the retransition is heard and the development section ends. The recapitulation starts in the tonic like the exposition. However, instead of being in F major and C major, this time the theme modulates through more keys and is more extended. The recapitulation ends in F minor, the parallel minor of the tonic, in which bouncy but suspenseful syncopated notes are heard between both hands. The piece becomes more agitated in the faster coda, in F major, keeping a forward motion till the end.