Dating from 1800-1801, Beethoven’s A flat major Sonata Op 26 is unusual in that none of its four movements uses sonata form at all. The use of variation form in the first movement, in a leisurely (rather than fast) tempo, necessitated the reversal of the normal arrangement of the middle movements so that the Scherzo comes second. The ‘slow movement’, now third, is the first example of Beethoven’s numerous funeral marches—the most famous coming just two years later as the second movement of his third symphony—the ‘Eroica’. It is interesting to note that, when providing incidental music for Friedrich Duncker’s drama Leonore Prohaska 14 years later, Beethoven orchestrated this Marcia funebre (transposing it into B minor), the only piano movement he ever rescored.

And yet Beethoven’s innovations (pointing to the ‘new way’ he espoused in the famous Heiligenstadt Testament of October 1802, written in the face of his encroaching deafness) were still rooted in the past. For example, Op 26’s opening variation movement has a precedent in Mozart’s A major Sonata K331, with similar tempo and metre. Mozart, to complement his extended first movement, opts for just two remaining movements, the second a Menuetto, whereas Beethoven places his bustling Scherzo second for maximum contrast before the slow movement. In its turn this design had repercussions for later composers, perhaps most notably Chopin, who wrote funereal slow movements in both his second and (arguably) third sonatas.

The sonata was published by Cappi in Vienna in March 1802, dedicated to Prince Lichnowsky, alongside the two fantasia-like sonatas of Op 27 (dedicated to Princess von Liechtenstein and Countess Guicciardi respectively).

The Andante con Variazioni first movement has a delicate, step-wise melody, with distinctive syncopation in its semiquaver phrases. Each of the five variations has its own sharply etched character. The first is sonorous, while the second pitches left-hand semiquavers against right hand off-beat demisemiquavers. The third moves into A flat minor and accentuates the step-wise nature of the theme, whilst the fourth is more playful. Finally, the fifth opens with rippling arpeggiated accompaniment, before gradually fading over repeated semiquavers underpinning answering quaver figures in both hands. In jumps the breathless Scherzo, with its more mellifluous Trio based solely on up-beat crotchets and minims, giving a gentle rocking motion before the Scherzo returns for its expected repeat. The Marcia funebre, in A flat minor, is characterised by its dotted rhythm and sombre mood, ebbing and flowing, only broken by the A flat major central section emulating more triumphant rumbling timpani and brass fanfares.

The finale is a moto perpetuo (although not as patently unmelodic as the close of Chopin’s second sonata), with no bar—save for the very last—escaping from the relentless rocking semiquavers which characterise this movement as much as the dotted rhythm characterised the foregoing funeral march. After the second set of downward running scales, the music ripples ever lower and quieter to the final bottom A flat.

Also dating from 1800-1801, Beethoven was very explicit in terming both his Op 27 Sonatas ‘in the style of a fantasy,’ marking his first attempts to switch the balance of music within a single structure from the first movement to the last movement. Thus it is the finale that is based on traditional sonata form. Additionally, in both works, his instruction eschews breaks between the movements, so each work runs as a cohesive whole—foreshadowing Schubert’s Wanderer-fantasie and Liszt’s Sonata.

Both also betray an improvisatory quality that Beethoven was known for at the keyboard. Such virtuosity was a common pianistic calling card in any concert, so Op 27’s sonatas quite possibly started out as free improvisations which were then worked into publishable form: ‘fantasy’ added as subtitle.

Opening the E flat Sonata’s Andante is a simple melody, with rising and falling accompaniment, repeated and developed first delicately, then sonorously and finally with some dramatic increases in volume, before the C major Allegro bursts in, frenetically offering its own gloss. It disappears as suddenly as it arrived and the opening section is allowed further statement and gentle development, drawing to a hushed close. Out of this grows the rippling scherzo and trio with sudden loud arpeggios breaking through the textures. The trio has a distinctive galloping accompanying motif, over which the melody rises and falls. Sonorous repeated chords introduce the expressively lyrical Adagio which shares an introspective quality with the third piano concerto’s slow movement, already composed but not yet premiered.

An extended trill, like a quasi-cadenza seems to cut the music short and clears way for the ebullient, tireless finale. Couched in sonata-rondo style, it opens contrapuntally, with a second theme in E flat, before a complicated development of both themes, reaching a thunderous climax. As it dies away, Beethoven reintroduces just a few bars of the Adagio ending again with a cadenza-like passage before the headlong coda rushes us to the final chords.

As to its quasi una fantasia partner—opening with one of the most memorable passages in the piano literature—it may come as a surprise to discover that it was not one of Beethoven’s particular favourites, saying ‘people are constantly talking about the C sharp minor sonata! But I have written much better things …’ Nor was the ‘Moonlight’ sobriquet authorised, and probably misses the mark by some way. It was coined by the author Ludwig Rellstab as late as 1832 when, in his novella Theodor, he associated the opening movement to a scene on Lake Lucerne where the moonlight shimmers on the water and ‘an Aeolian harp evokes secret laments of poignant, solitary love from every ruin.’ But instead of some idyllic—if poignant—romantic sentiment, Beethoven seems to have had death in mind with this piece. It bears a very close relationship to the music Mozart wrote in Don Giovanni to mark the death (at night) of the Commendatore. An extant manuscript in Vienna in Beethoven’s hand shows he copied out this passage of Mozart, and transposed it into C sharp minor (the key of the sonata). Moreover the postlude is, note-for-note, the same as the Mozart. At the time, in 1801, Beethoven was getting over the death of a close friend, so perhaps this movement should rather be seen as a funeral dirge.

His pupil Carl Czerny came closer in describing the mood of the piece, commenting that ‘it is a night scene, where the voice of lamenting ghosts is echoed from the far-off distance.’ Like its immediate predecessor eschewing expected sonata form, Beethoven asks for some remarkable effects, particularly with the famous opening movement, where he instructs his performers to play ‘extremely delicately and without dampers.’ Hector Berlioz, 35 years after its 1802 publication, eloquently describes the music: ‘The left hand deploys sad, solemn, widely-spaced chords, sustained long enough for the vibrations of the instrument to die away gradually into each one; over them, the lower fingers of the right hand sketch an unchanging arpeggio accompaniment, its shape hardly varying from the first bar to the last, while the remaining fingers intone a sort of lament, a flowering in melody of that sombre harmony.’ Although not listed as such, basically the theme is treated in variation form.

Liszt described the ensuing, central Allegretto as a ‘flower poised between two abysses’ and—attacca—there is no pause between movements. in the major, this immediately breaks the mood (and the rest of the sonata can hardly be fitted to the description of moonlight), with its skipping outer sections and stepping central section. the agitated nature of the finale breaks in without respite, with its furious upward arpeggios and double hammered chords. there is no let up until the coda introduces two bars of the opening Adagio but the mood is broken immediately for the headlong rush to the end. If the opening movement demands of its performer subtlety and acute key control and tone production, the finale demands stamina and incredible virtuosity.

Nick Breckenfield © 2026