Sonata No. 26 is the only programmatic one of the entire cycle. It was created during the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809, in which the Austrian Empire and its allies (Britain, Portugal and Spain) fought the French Empire under Napoleon and its German allies, chiefly Bavaria. It depicts the departure, absence and return of Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven’s longtime patron and student, who together with much of the Viennese aristocracy fled Vienna at the approach of Napoleon in May 1809. Beethoven may have begun the sonata before that (it might even not have been planned with Rudolph in mind, but rather meant to depict a more universal emotion), but it was definitely completed during Rudolph’s absence, and presented to him as a gift upon his return to Vienna in early 1810.

The first movement (00:10) is centered around a motif of three descending notes, above which Beethoven wrote in the score ‘Le-be wohl’ (‘fare thee well’). This motif is also the upper line of a perennial horn call, built from a sequence of three intervals – a third, a fifth and a sixth – which indeed opens the sonata. Normally it is a happy motif (in Russian we call it the ‘golden call’ for its noble, burnished colour), but Beethoven subverts expectations right from the third note, when an expressive C minor harmony replaces the expected E flat major one. A few bars later, another attempt at the call goes even more awry – it ends in a numb C flat major (00:47), as if Beethoven felt completely lost in face of the news of the imminent departure. He then manages to bestir himself, and the exposition proper, starting at (1:35) is full of happy activity, as if the bustle of preparation for the departure distracts him from the pain. The ‘lebe wohl’ motif appears here in a lighter character, above a contented flow of chatting quavers (2:12).

But the pain hasn’t gone away, and the development brings the original motif back, though with an interesting twist – it now only consists of the first two notes, as if the thought of saying a full farewell had become too painful to contemplate (3:38). This issue gets resolved in a poetic coda, in which the full motif is repeated multiple times, in various guises (5:47). On one hand, the music could suggest the image of a carriage gradually receding into the distances, appearing and disappearing from view, with the horn calls answering and overlapping as they fade into a pianissimo. But at the same time, it could be an image of Beethoven coming to accept the inevitability of the farewell, by teaching himself to say the word, again and again. Whatever the case, I find the coda exceedingly beautiful.

In the second movement (7:42) we can easily imagine Beethoven pacing desolately in his room, or sinking into a rapt reverie of reminiscing (8:42). The transition to the finale is done with exceptional emotional vividness – just as the music was about to go into a third repeat of the same material (depicting, I imagine, the monotony of waiting), a change of harmony occurs (10:42), heralding a possible change of circumstances; there’s a sense of a cautious hope, intensifying with every moment, growing more certain, until, YES!! The return is real, and the music is nearly delirious with happiness (10:51), the dreary steps replaced with overflowing energy, until the main theme (and with it, the returning Archduke) appear (11:02). In a lesser composer’s hands it could all be over-the-top theatrical. But coming from Beethoven, the heartfelt and utterly sincere music results in a loving sonata, unashamedly wearing its heart on its sleeve. It packs a rich, almost cinematic experience into its 15 minutes, supported throughout by Beethoven’s instinctive and sensitive understanding of the human heart, and his constant ability to find the right notes to evoke these emotions in us.

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Beethoven 32 – Over the course of 2020, I have learned and filmed all 32 Beethoven sonatas. Subscribe to this channel or visit [ Ссылка ] to follow the project.

Boris Giltburg, piano

Filmed by Stewart French
© 2021 Fly On The Wall, London
@FazioliPianos

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