Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 05/13/2005, uploaded on 10/03/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor       Ludwig van Beethoven

                Beethoven's thirty-two piano sonatas are as much a prominent part of the piano repertoire as his symphonies are in the orchestra. When all thirty-two are looked at as a whole, it is amazing to see the progress of such an artist over his lifetime.

                The First Piano Sonata was composed in 1795 and is dedicated to Joseph Haydn, with whom Beethoven had previously taken counterpoint lessons. The key of the sonata is F minor, which it shares with many of Beethoven's more well-known works-the Appassionata sonata, the Egmont overture and the op. 95 string quartet. In fact, the Appassionata, written ten years later, would be the first time Beethoven would return to the key of F minor. After the op. 95 quartet he would not use it again as the central key of a major work. It seems the key of F minor possessed an expression peculiar to the latter half of Beethoven's middle period. While the Piano Sonata No. 1 may serve as a kind of precursor, it lacks some of the defining characteristics of those later compositions.

                The sonata contains four movements, instead of the usual three that was customary with Haydn and Mozart. The first movement begins with a rising arpeggio of the tonic chord. This opening two measure motif bears a striking resemblance to that used by Mozart in the finale of his Symphony No. 40. Beethoven would also reuse the idea in an altered form for the scherzo of his own Fifth Symphony. The movement is quite regular in form, fulfilling the expectations of the Classical sonata form. However, there are moments that give a subtle hint to the unique emotionalism of Beethoven's later compositions.

                The second movement, though perfectly suited for this sonata, was actually adapted from a piano quartet Beethoven composed in 1785. It is a ternary form movement based on an ornate F major melody with a contrasting D minor middle section. As is usual with a Classical ternary, the return of the first theme is even more embellished and the movement closes with a brief coda.

                The following Minuet, though interesting in its syncopations and brief moments of silence, commands no special attention. The finale, like the first movement, is in sonata form. The exposition is dominated by persistent triplets. In fact, there are few bars during this section, as well the recapitulation, in which the triplets are absent. The development section, instead of developing the previous themes, presents a new lyrical melody in the key of A flat major. In the Classical period it is not uncommon for the development section of a sonata form to abandon the themes of the exposition for a new theme. However, this was a compositional technique that was gradually abandoned during the Romantic period. The movement closes dramatically with triplets over reiterated tonic and dominant chords.

Joseph DuBose

This was recorded for an audition cd in the spring of 2005