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While the Grand Sonate ‘Pathétique’ broke new emotional ground, in its aftermath Beethoven returned to Mozart and Haydn allusions in the pair of sonatas that were published together as Op 14 in 1799 by Mollo, dedicated to Baroness Josefa von Braun. Baroness Braun was a talented amateur player, and would no doubt have revelled in the felicitous classical references in these two sonatas, none—of course—without Beethovenian touches.
That Beethoven held these works in high regard can be seen in the fact that he refashioned the first as a string quartet (transposing it up a tone to F major, Hess 34)—the only sonata so treated (published in May 1802 by the Bureau des Arts et d’Industrie, Vienna, again dedicated to the Baroness). Intriguingly, early sketches for this sonata (c 1798) may indicate that it started life for an ensemble and not as a solo piece.
The E major sonata opens in Mozartian style, without the rhythmic insistence we expect from Beethoven, and thus the melodic inspiration seems more varied. The development unfolds over constant upward arpeggiated semiquavers, before the opening three-quaver pulse returns and it is this that, ultimately, gently quietens to the final pianissimo bars.
The dotted lilt of the ensuing Allegretto is in E minor, acting both as a slow movement and a minuet with trio. Just to confuse matters further, Beethoven adds a gentle coda, based on the trio section, bringing the movement to a quiet close similarly to the opening movement.
The busy rondo theme of the final movement, with distinctive rising triplet accompaniment, returns after three episodes, the first and third both contrastingly hushed, while the extended second—in E minor—takes the runaway triplet figure and roams harmonically before finding E major again. The brief coda is developed from the main theme and—for once in this sonata—the movement ends forcefully.
While the G major Sonata’s affinity with Haydn is revealed in its middle movement, its Allegro starts in relaxed mood before reaching more stormy reaches in the development. Eventually the music settles back into some sort of equilibrium for the recapitulation and the gentle final bars.
The second movement is, in all but name, a theme with three variations, which—like the slow movement of Haydn’s 94th Symphony in G—has its own surprise. Unison quavers make up the theme, without the sudden blast (which ensured Haydn’s symphony the sobriquet, ‘Surprise’), until the very final bar. Beethoven’s gently chugging and later more flowing movement is, like Haydn’s, in C major, and opts against the hushed close that typifies its two flanking movements.
The final movement is—curiously—marked Scherzo, although it is in sonata-rondo form, with no trio section. However, the impish quality of the main theme is certainly joke-like—scherzo’s original meaning—and so seems entirely appropriate, as does its typically Beethovenian ending, with its growing rhythmic insistence simply petering out.
Beethoven was equally pleased with his ensuing Sonata—Op 22 in B flat—composed in 1800 and published in 1802 by Hoffmeister in Leipzig, with a dedication to Count Johann von Browne. He described it: ‘hat sich gewaschen’ (literally ‘has washed itself,’ perhaps best translated as ‘there are no spots on it!’). Yet, despite its similar plan to both its exact contemporary ‘Spring’ Sonata for violin and piano Op 24 (with a very similar theme in the finale) and the later ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata Op 106 in the same key, Op 22 seems to be the runt of the sonata litter. Marooned between being a ‘stepping stone’ to the ensuing great sonatas (‘Moonlight’ and ‘Pastoral’ included) and a goodbye wave to an old style and century, Beethoven’s first B flat piano sonata has been confined to a curious limbo in the repertoire. Even though it may be too perfect, with not enough of that surprise we expect from Beethoven, it is instructive to comment on certain common traits between the two B flat works and, in consequence, accord it greater notice.
Note, then, the rising and falling third with which the sonata opens (with the delectable and important semiquaver phrase as pointing), and compare the same with Op 106. Also note the rising sixths common to both sonatas’ second themes, here underpinned by a welter of chromatic downward-stepping semiquavers. Even if Op 22 dares nothing as heroic as Op 106, the dotted octave fortissimo two-bar rise and two-bar fall with which the exposition ends is pretty emphatic and is used to good effect in the development. The recapitulation is heralded by an extraordinary transition from fortissimo to pianissimo over some thirty bars, with arpeggiated semiquavers descending to the depths.
The E flat major slow movement is in sonata form, the first theme being rounded off in full cadence before the music carries on with the upbeat to the next bar. Poignantly expanded, so the accompaniment becomes less static and the right hand traces a wide-ranging melisma, the music rarely exceeds piano, save for the occasional sforzando and dies somewhat abruptly away.
The strictly constructed minuet and trio (three eight-bar phrases for the former; two, repeated, for the latter) rises from the silence of the Adagio, with the distinctive G minor Trio following the minuet’s six-bar coda. Such was Schumann’s high impression of it, he imitated it within his Humoreske, Op 20.
The constant semiquaver rippling that characterises the rondo theme of the final Allegretto builds to something quite forceful. The first return to the main theme is notable for Beethoven’s gradual use of smaller note values—semiquavers, sextuplets, demisemiquavers and, finally, a run of quintuplet demisemiquavers—but that is just one subtlety in this genial but knowing finale. The music rises to a fortissimo climax, briefly arrested for just four bars with a reminder of the very opening phrases, before the two final chords.
Nick Breckenfield © 2026