Beethoven: Sonata No.19 in G Minor, Op.49 No.1 (Biret, Lewis)

B.’s two Op.49 sonatas (really sonatinas) are misnumbered: they were written at around the same time as the 3rd and 4th sonatas, but were published a lot later because B. never intended that they be published (we’ve got his brother to thank that these sonatas are known at all.) Both sonatas are small, two-movement, unassuming pieces, unabashedly classical in style, and constructed rather straightforwardly for (in all likelihood) some of B.’s friends (or their children).

Which is not to say they are not wonderful pieces. The 19th sonata has a particularly moving first movement, with a starkly doleful first theme and a lyrical second. The second movement is struck through with little dashes of humour, starting from its rather long upbeat. And though it is not a radically new or innovative, the 19th perfectly written for what it is: an example of the classical two-movement form, concise, graceful, with a naturalness of expression that only the greatest classical composers ever achieved.

MVT I, Andante
EXPOSITION
00:00 – Theme 1
00:30 – Theme 2
00:58 – Codetta
DEVELOPMENT
02:16 – Theme 2, decomposed
02:25 – A developmental Theme 3, introduced and repeated with ornamentation
02:43 – Sequential treatment of the Codetta, with dominant preparation reached at 3:00 and chromaticism introduced at 3:08 to build up tension
03:21 – RECAPITULATION, with some elaboration of the themes
04:22 – CODA, with Theme 2 in bass, and an eerie final passage leading to a cadence on a Picardy third

MVT II, Rondo (allegro)
05:15 – A Section
05:35 – B Section
05:55 – C Section (Bb maj)
06:35 – B section
06:52 – Transition. The A theme pretends to enter in G min.
06:55 – A theme
07:25 – C section (now in G maj)
08:06 – It looks like we’re back to the A theme, but we’ve actually slipped into the
CODA
08:09 – The A theme transfers registers
08:20 – We build to a dramatic pause that must herald some kind of cadenza, but
08:24 – Instead the A theme comes in again in the LH, segueing into a warm passage, using the opening motif of this movement, that brings the piece to a close.