Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 04/28/2009, uploaded on 03/09/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

in memory of Francesca De Romita and a special thanks to Marie Francoise Bucquet

Allegro molto e con brio

Largo, con gran espressione

Allegro

Rondo - Poco Allegretto e grazioso

Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat major    Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven composed his Piano Sonata No. 4, op. 7, sometimes referred to as the "Grand Sonata," in 1797. Like the three piano sonatas of op. 2, the Piano Sonata No. 4 is still much in the style of Mozart and Haydn, though with more orchestral influences in the piano writing. As mentioned above, it is in the key of E flat which throughout Beethoven's entire career was his choice for grand heroic gestures.

The sonata consists of four movements. The first movement, a dramatic Allegro, begins with a theme full of energy that quickly builds into orchestral-like fortissimo chords. It is followed by a more lyrical second subject in the dominant. The development jumps abruptly into the key of G major, emphasizing a tertian key relationship. The development is compact, though dramatic, and it is not difficult to imagine the sonorities of trumpets and horns throughout the course of it.

The second movement, a Largo in C major, displays Beethoven's revolutionary use of silence. Once again, the orchestral sonorities of strings and winds seem appropriate for the melodies of this movement. The following Allegro, somewhere in between a Minuet and a Scherzo, is more pianistic than the preceding movements. The opening melody has all the grace of a Minuet, though the rumbling Trio in the tonic minor bears the mark of Beethoven's dramatic scherzos.

The finale begins somewhat unassumingly with a graceful theme in E flat major over a murmuring B flat pedal. The central episode of the movement moves into the parallel minor key and consists of full chords accompanied by constant thirty-second notes. This passage returns later in an altered form and in the tonic key to close the piece.       Joseph DuBose