Beethoven began composing his last three sonatas in May 1820, originally intending to complete them within three months and publish them together. However, various illnesses and the composition of his Missa Solemnis (solemn mass) delayed his progress, and he was only able to complete one sonata, Op. 109, within the prescribed time period. Thus, the sonatas were ultimately published separately, but even so, they are often seen as a set due to their shared thematic material. Like Beethoven’s other piano works of that period, all three sonatas contain melodies that expand into the upper keyboard, including the highest notes on his piano. Of this, pianist Susan Tomes wrote, ‘[It is] as though the upper register of the keyboard is a goal for [Beethoven] with some emotional meaning. In his middle period, when he first became seriously deaf, he seemed to prefer writing for lower registers of the piano which he could hear better. In later years, despite his deafness, he returned to writing in very high registers of the piano. Although he couldn’t hear them, his imagination demanded them and these upper regions may have had some spiritual association for him, like angelic music.’ Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 109 in E Major is considered by many to be the most original in form of all his sonatas. Its dedicatee, Maximiliane Brentano, was the daughter of Antonie Brentano, a close friend of Beethoven’s and almost certainly the intended recipient of his never-mailed letter to his ‘Immortal Beloved’. The sonata begins with a fleeting, bagatelle-like first movement featuring a flowing, Vivace (lively) first theme interrupted by a more passionate, fantasia-like second theme. This leads without a pause into the explosive Prestissimo (extremely fast) second movement, in the relative minor. The sonata ends with a set of six variations on a sarabande-like theme of immortal beauty, by the last of which the theme has not only been varied but transfigured. The autograph of Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 110 in A-flat Major was dated December 25, 1821; this and its unusual lack of a dedicatee has lead many to conjecture that it was Beethoven’s Christmas present for himself. Its songlike first movement opens with a theme, marked con amabilità (with tenderness), that could easily be heard as another variation of Op. 109’s third movement, but for the key change from E to A-flat. This theme will later return in a simplified form as the subject of the third movement’s fugue. In contrast to the first movement, the Molto Allegro (very fast) second movement, in the relative minor, is a peasant dance characterized by alternating soft and loud phrases and abrupt accents. Its opening bars will also make a reappearance in the third movement, completely transformed, as the beginning of the Arioso dolente lament. Of the eloquent third movement, Susan Tomes wrote, ‘[It] has a powerful structure…with alternating episodes of sorrowful lament and stately fugue. In performance it often seems like a theatrical scene unfolding at different distances, one close and personal, one far away and impersonal, like a study of the movement of the stars.’ The movement begins with a short introduction followed by a recitative that would not sound out of place in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. The mysterious repeated As heard soon afterwards suggest both a person stuttering in great emotion and the deaf Beethoven pounding on a single note in an effort to hear it. This introductory section eventually gives way to a piercingly sad lament based on the opening motif of the previous movement. In fact, this motif was originally derived from the aria ‘Es ist Vollbracht’ (It is fulfilled) from Bach’s St John Passion, a lament sung upon the death of Jesus. After Beethoven’s lament concludes, the Gregorian Chant-like fugue subject enters in major, seeming to provide a form of consolation after the despair of the lament. The fugue does not resolve, however, instead transitioning into another lament, marked Ermattet (weary), its melody now fragmented into sobbing sighs. This lament dissolves into a second, inverted fugue, marked poi a poi di nuovo vivente (gradually returning to life), which eventually leads to the sonata’s triumphant, major-key conclusion. Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 111, his last piano sonata and one of his last works for piano, was completed in 1822 and is in his favorite key of C minor (the key of the Pathetique Sonata, Third Piano Concerto, and Fifth Symphony, among others). Its stormy and passionate first movement begins with a thunderclap composed of two bass octaves outlining a diminished seventh, the same motif (albeit in a different rhythm and key) that Chopin would later use to open his ‘Funeral March’ Sonata Op. 35. In Beethoven’s sonata, the Maestoso (majestic) introduction is followed by a jagged first theme that contains many fugal elements. The first movement ends with a surprising cadence in the relative major, foreshadowing the key of the sublime following movement, which, like the finale of Op. 109, is a theme and variations. This one opens with a deceptively simple Arietta of ethereal beauty, followed by three variations characterized by increasingly shorter note values, culminating in the third with rhythms that seem to foreshadow jazz. The second half of the movement contains several trills that reach the highest notes of Beethoven’s pianos, described by academic John Clubbe as ‘[lifting the listener] to ever higher stages, before leaving us in paradise’. Program Notes by Baobei (copyright 2025)
Beethoven began composing his last three sonatas in May 1820, originally intending to complete them within three months and publish them together. However, various illnesses and the composition of his Missa Solemnis (solemn mass) delayed his progress, and he was only able to complete one sonata, Op. 109, within the prescribed time period. Thus, the sonatas were ultimately published separately, but even so, they are often seen as a set due to their shared thematic material.
Like Beethoven’s other piano works of that period, all three sonatas contain melodies that expand into the upper keyboard, including the highest notes on his piano. Of this, pianist Susan Tomes wrote, ‘[It is] as though the upper register of the keyboard is a goal for [Beethoven] with some emotional meaning. In his middle period, when he first became seriously deaf, he seemed to prefer writing for lower registers of the piano which he could hear better. In later years, despite his deafness, he returned to writing in very high registers of the piano. Although he couldn’t hear them, his imagination demanded them and these upper regions may have had some spiritual association for him, like angelic music.’
Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 109 in E Major is considered by many to be the most original in form of all his sonatas. Its dedicatee, Maximiliane Brentano, was the daughter of Antonie Brentano, a close friend of Beethoven’s and almost certainly the intended recipient of his never-mailed letter to his ‘Immortal Beloved’.
The sonata begins with a fleeting, bagatelle-like first movement featuring a flowing, Vivace (lively) first theme interrupted by a more passionate, fantasia-like second theme. This leads without a pause into the explosive Prestissimo (extremely fast) second movement, in the relative minor. The sonata ends with a set of six variations on a sarabande-like theme of immortal beauty, by the last of which the theme has not only been varied but transfigured.
The autograph of Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 110 in A-flat Major was dated December 25, 1821; this and its unusual lack of a dedicatee has lead many to conjecture that it was Beethoven’s Christmas present for himself.
Its songlike first movement opens with a theme, marked con amabilità (with tenderness), that could easily be heard as another variation of Op. 109’s third movement, but for the key change from E to A-flat. This theme will later return in a simplified form as the subject of the third movement’s fugue.
In contrast to the first movement, the Molto Allegro (very fast) second movement, in the relative minor, is a peasant dance characterized by alternating soft and loud phrases and abrupt accents. Its opening bars will also make a reappearance in the third movement, completely transformed, as the beginning of the Arioso dolente lament.
Of the eloquent third movement, Susan Tomes wrote, ‘[It] has a powerful structure…with alternating episodes of sorrowful lament and stately fugue. In performance it often seems like a theatrical scene unfolding at different distances, one close and personal, one far away and impersonal, like a study of the movement of the stars.’ The movement begins with a short introduction followed by a recitative that would not sound out of place in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. The mysterious repeated As heard soon afterwards suggest both a person stuttering in great emotion and the deaf Beethoven pounding on a single note in an effort to hear it. This introductory section eventually gives way to a piercingly sad lament based on the opening motif of the previous movement. In fact, this motif was originally derived from the aria ‘Es ist Vollbracht’ (It is fulfilled) from Bach’s St John Passion, a lament sung upon the death of Jesus. After Beethoven’s lament concludes, the Gregorian Chant-like fugue subject enters in major, seeming to provide a form of consolation after the despair of the lament. The fugue does not resolve, however, instead transitioning into another lament, marked Ermattet (weary), its melody now fragmented into sobbing sighs. This lament dissolves into a second, inverted fugue, marked poi a poi di
nuovo vivente (gradually returning to life), which eventually leads to the sonata’s triumphant, major-key conclusion.
Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 111, his last piano sonata and one of his last works for piano, was completed in 1822 and is in his favorite key of C minor (the key of the Pathetique Sonata, Third Piano Concerto, and Fifth Symphony, among others).
Its stormy and passionate first movement begins with a thunderclap composed of two bass octaves outlining a diminished seventh, the same motif (albeit in a different rhythm and key) that Chopin would later use to open his ‘Funeral March’ Sonata Op. 35. In Beethoven’s sonata, the Maestoso (majestic) introduction is followed by a jagged first theme that contains many fugal elements.
The first movement ends with a surprising cadence in the relative major, foreshadowing the key of the sublime following movement, which, like the finale of Op. 109, is a theme and variations. This one opens with a deceptively simple Arietta of ethereal beauty, followed by three variations characterized by increasingly shorter note values, culminating in the third with rhythms that seem to foreshadow jazz. The second half of the movement contains several trills that reach the highest notes of Beethoven’s pianos, described by academic John Clubbe as ‘[lifting the listener] to ever higher stages, before leaving us in paradise’.
Program Notes by Baobei (copyright 2025)