Beethoven Piano Sonata Op 109 No 30 in E major by Anastasia Huppmann

Beethoven Sonata Op 109

Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata Op 109 No. 30 in E major is the antepenultimate 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.


That has been much speculated and philosophized about the character of the individual keys. Often it has also been doubted whether the keys have any meaning at all.


But it is precisely in the last three piano sonatas of Beethoven, which in a certain way may be regarded as a pianistic summary of Beethoven's world of ideas, that the choice of keys is certainly no coincidence, but well-considered.


This becomes clear when one recalls the role played by the keys in Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio. C minor and C major stand for the evil and the good, for tyranny and freedom, for darkness and light, for hell and heaven.

In the same opera, Fidelio, E major is the key of Leonore, who in the E major part of her great aria climbs into heroic pathos of loving self-sacrifice. The idea of salvation through the "eternal feminine" (Goethe) is certainly also reflected in Beethoven's mysterious "immortal lover". Against this background, it can hardly be a coincidence that the Beethoven Sonata op 109, dedicated to "Miss Maximiliana Brentano", is in the key of E major.


One of my great teachers, Paul Badura-Skoda uses to say about this sonata:

“The music is a woman, a woman is the music intended. - Stay, you are too beautiful, seems to be the secretive message. The root E lingers throughout the sonata. If the harmony lingers on long stretches, then all love and care must be given to the garlands, the embellishment of the melody. As changeable as the valuation of the word beauty may be. In no sonata did Beethoven spread her cornucopia richer. "

Beethoven Sonata 109 consists of three movements:
1st movement

The first movement reflects the strong interest that Beethoven developed during this period in structures in which contrasting sections are included parenthetically. The same tendency is manifest in the Missa Solemnis, composed at almost the same time, and in the piano sonatas following this one. A quiet, lyrical, rapid vivace first theme is contrasted, after only eight bars, with a forte adagio second theme full of arpeggios. Even from a purely harmonic point of view, the contrast between the clear major in the first part and the extremely tense diminished seventh chords in the second could hardly be more obvious.

2nd movement

The stormy Prestissimo in E minor has been described as one of Beethoven's most tuneful prestissimo movements. This movement is also in sonata form, although the usual contrast between the first subject (E minor) and the second subject (B minor) is completely absent here because of the nature of the thematic material.

3rd movement

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

I often feel as if the piano and Beethoven were fashioned from the very same mould; somehow inextricably linked by their very design. I hear his echoes between each and every ivory and ebony key; as if he were still playing to this very day. Many feel that Piano Sonata No. 30 (often referred to simply as Beethoven Sonata 109) is one of his last great pieces. Written a mere seven years before his death, this work was composed near the same time as the Missa Solemnis and his famous Ninth Symphony. However, the Beethoven 109 is seen as being vastly different when compared to his earlier sonatas due to its unique harmonic attributes. It is worth noting that this piece was created following the Hammerklavier (opus 106). He was well aware of the severity of his hearing loss by this time and he had already suffered many emotional upheavals. So, I personally....... WANT TO READ MORE? ... here is the article
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