Beethoven - Sonata No.28 in A Major, Op.101 (Levit, Lewis, Korstick)

This sonata is a little overshadowed by the Hammerklavier, which it precedes, but should not be. It’s the first of Beethoven’s late sonatas, and is groundbreaking in more ways than one. It might be the case that its ingenuity is overlooked because it is worn so lightly – this is the most tender and good-natured of all the late sonatas.

The first movement is this sonata is ultra-compressed, as is typical of the late sonatas (well, some of them at least: I’m looking at you, Hammerklavier). The most extraordinary feature of the movement is its quality of infinitude –it is constructed such that the melody unfolds forever like a Wagner “run-on” progression [see 0:14], and the method by which this is achieved becomes clear when you notice that in this A Maj movement, the root position tonic chord never occurs at all until the very end of the piece. So a movement which opens on the dominant (in a manner rather like a Bach prelude), really turns out to be single (interrupted and extended) dominant-tonic progression.

The second movement is a march where a scherzo would be, and has rather unexpected musical and dramatic heft. The movement is in F Maj, far removed from A Maj, and the movement also features prominent episodes in A Maj and Db Maj (even further removed from A Maj). The three keys are all related by the interval of a third, in clear anticipation of the Hammerklavier’s even more extensive large-scale deployment of the interval. The passage which leads back from Db to F Maj is one of Beethoven’s magical passages, where the pedal is instructed to be held down despite changes in harmony [5:21; more dramatically 52:00].

Note also the heavily canonic writing of the second movement’s middle (“sort-of-trio”) section, and the extensive canonic writing in the last movement [14:20, 14:49]. This is the most canon-heavy of Beethoven’s sonatas, but at lot of this stuff passes by almost without notice because the canonic writing is so unintrusive and joyous.

The third movement is essentially an intermezzo or introduction, which would make you expect it to lead straight into the final movement. Instead, extraordinarily, after a long pause on the dominant, it leads back to a repeat of the first movement’s main theme: one of the most moving moments in all of Beethoven’s music.

The final movement is heavily contrapuntal: even before we encounter the fugue which is the development, we’re given a main theme that is highly contrapuntal in a rather Bachian, imitative way. The fugue of the development section is the most good-natured one Beethoven ever wrote (all of the fugal episodes in Beethoven’s late sonatas have very distinct characters, and this one is certainly the nice guy in the family). It begins with a minimalist quotation of the sonata’s opening [16:33], and features a consistently gentle humour (see the unresolved trill at [16:56 and similar] and the fugue subject which enters at 16:51, which is described by Schiff as “a villain tiptoeing on a stage”). Formally, it’s also worth noting that the fugue employs an inventive harmonic scheme where the first entry is in A Min, the second in C Maj (E Min would be the “correct” key), and the third in D Min.

The movement also features a low E prominently because Beethoven had just gotten a new Broadwood piano with a low E the Viennese pianos didn’t have and was eager to show it off. See the wonderful passage that ends the development [18:28], where the bass features a heavily augmented version of the movement’s theme (A-F#-G#-A-B-E) embedded in a pounding low E, which Beethoven actually points out by writing “Contra E”(!) The sonata’s coda also features the low E recurring in the bass – as Schiff observes, Beethoven used the low E whenever he could, like a child with a new toy.

MVT I – Etwas Lebhaft und mit innigsten Empfindung (“Rather lively, with the warmest feeling”)
EXPOSITION
00:00 – Theme 1
00:14 – Theme 2 [Note how fast we arrive in the dominant]
01:06 – A syncopated “floating” progression, where the resolution to the tonic is extensively delayed
01:20 – DEVELOPMENT [Note the integration of the syncopation into the texture]
02:13 – RECAPITULATION [Note the highly unobtrusive return of the main theme: it’s basically smuggled into the texture]
03:02 – CODA

MVT II – Lebhaft, marschmässig (“Lively, restrained march” – Note how Schumanesque this movement is)
04:18 – March [Note the chromatic fourth in the bass and the sudden harmonic disolations]
07:15 – Trio
08:32 – March gradually returns

MVT III – Langsam und sehnsuchtvoll (“Slowly and longingly”)
10:21 – Intermezzo
13:13 – Recollection of MVT I

MVT IV – Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr und mit Entschlossenheit (“Quickly, but not rushed and with determination”)
EXPOSITION
13:49 – Theme 1
14:40 – Theme (group) 2 (closely related to Theme 1)
16:33 – DEVELOPMENT: fugue (Note imitative passages of extraordinary power, such as at 18:13)
18:35 – RECAPITULATION
20:28 – CODA