Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonata in C minor Op. 13 “Pathétique”

Composed at the turn of 1798 and 1799, Beethoven’s Grande Sonate pathétique is counted among the artist’s relatively early works (it was written even before Symphony No. 1).
The work’s C minor key, traditionally perceived as highly dramatic, was to become a great inspiration for Beethoven, whose life (and art) consisted in constant struggle against “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." For it is in C minor that he was to write the fourth of his string quartets Op. 18 cycle, his Piano Concerto No. 3, his Symphony No. 5 – a veritable icon of international symphony, his Egmont overture, and, last but not least, his Op. 111 that closes the “megacycle” of his piano sonatas.
∙ Sonata in C minor "Pathétique," dedicated to Prince Karl von Lichnowsky, consists of three parts. Movement One, maintained in the form of a sonata allegro, opens with a slow, chordal introduction (Grave), the heavy and punctuated rhythm of which brings strong and probably not unfounded (in view of Beethoven’s earnest support for the Revolution of 1789) associations with French overture. This is followed by the movement’s main phase; it first presents the first theme in the primary key, and then a somewhat milder second theme in E flat major. The unconventional character of the first movement consists in the fact that the above-mentioned Grave will return in its shortened form, not once but twice, before the development phase and the coda.
∙ Movement Two – Adagio cantabile in the form ABA’ – in A flat major is an example of an extraordinary melodic gift, not too common in Beethoven: the main theme of the adagio is charms one with its delightful cantilena, of the most beautiful and the most famous ever to be born under the plume of the master from Bonn.
∙ The Finale of Sonata "Pathétique" is a sonata rondo that reverts to C minor and the tempo of Allegro. In this part, the main theme (the refrain) is interspersed with subsidiary ideas (couplets) in a way so lucid and plastic that it is often presented to young students of musical form as the model realisation of the abstract rondo pattern.

Marcin Gmys