Piano Sonata No. 11 (Beethoven)

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Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 11 in B♭ major, Op. 22, was composed in 1800, and published two years later. Beethoven regarded it as the best of his early sonatas, though some of its companions in the cycle have been at least as popular with the public.[1]

Prominent musicologist

Donald Francis Tovey has called this work the crowning achievement and culmination of Beethoven's early "grand" piano sonatas. (The "grand" modifier was applied by Beethoven to sonatas with four movements instead of three.) Subsequent sonatas find Beethoven experimenting more with form and concept.[1]

Structure

I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio con molto espressione
III. Menuetto
IV. Rondo: Allegretto
Performed by Artur Schnabel in 1932
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The sonata has four movements:[2]

  1. Allegro con brio
  2. Adagio con molto espressione
  3. Menuetto
  4. Rondo: Allegretto

A typical performance lasts 25–30 minutes.

I. Allegro con brio

The first movement is in typical

dominant seventh chord (dominant function of the sonata), which sets up the recapitulation. The recapitulation is at first the same as the exposition, but has some changes, with a deviation that sets the rest of the movement to stay in the tonic key.[2]

II. Adagio con molta espressione

The second movement is in

Chopin.[2]
The exposition starts in the tonic key and ends in the dominant key. The development plays around with the first theme of the exposition, slowly building intensity until both hands play constant sixteenth notes. The right hand plays a second voice above its 16th notes, and a little later, the left hand plays a bass line consisting of just B♭s. The left hand then stops and the right hand flows right into the recapitulation. The recapitulation stays in the tonic key for the rest of the movement.

III. Menuetto

The third movement is in minuet and trio form, but the trio is instead a very contrasting "Minore". The first 30 measures of the Menuetto are in B♭ major, the Minore is in G minor (the relative key of B-flat). The end of the Minore is marked Menuetto D.C. senza replica which means to play the Menuetto again, this time without taking the repeats. This is the shortest movement.[2]

IV. Rondo: Allegretto

The fourth movement is in

call-and-response
play on the beginning of the "C" theme, and the thirty-second-note passage with the climax again.

Not unlike the end of the "B" theme, the "A" theme's melody is suggested a few times before returning to the tonic key and a third "A" section. However, the melody of this "A" section is in the left hand until the right hand has a two-measure thirty-second-note run that flows into the rest of the melody, this time the right hand octaves being broken. The next section (second "B" section) is very similar to the first "B" section except that it stays in the tonic key all the way through. A fake "A" section is played in the

dominant seventh
to tonic) to conclude the sonata.

References

  1. ^ a b "Artur Pizarro — The Beethoven Sonata Cycle", BBC Radio 3 (accessed August 3, 2015).
  2. ^ a b c d e Cummings, Robert. "Piano Sonata No. 11 in B Flat Major, Op. 22 (1800)" in All Music Guide to Classical Music: The Definitive Guide to Classical Music, p. 108 (Chris Woodstra, Gerald Brennan, Allen Schrott eds., Hal Leonard Corporation, 2005).

External links

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