Opus 10, 3 Sonatas in C minor, F major, D major for piano
Opus 10 Sonatas (3) in C minor, F major, D major for piano op. 10, dedicated to the Countess of Browne, 1796 – mid-1798, published in Vienna, Eder, September 1798. GA. nos. 128-130 (series 16/5-7) – B. 10 – KH. 10 – L. I, p. 93 – N. 10 – P. 92 – T. 56
The original manuscript is lost. Sketches described by Nottebohm and Shedlock are found on some sheets preserved partly in Berlin (Deutsche Staatsbibliothek) partly in the British Museum. Although composed, it can be said, together, within the maximum time limits indicated above, these three works differ significantly from each other. Between the first two and the last there is a considerable gap in structure, breadth and expression.
[By Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]
Official title: Opus 10 Drei Sonaten (c-moll, F-dur, D-dur) für Klavier Widmung: Anna Margarete Gräfin von Browne-Camus NGA VII/2 AGA 128-130 = Serie 16/5-7 Beiname: Nr. 1 Kleine Pathetique (Charakter und Tonart Op. 13)
Composition and publication: Beethoven composed the first and second movements of the first sonata together with WoO 52 Bagatelle in C minor for piano) intended as a minuet or scherzo probably at the end of 1795, before his trip to Prague and Berlin. Between the end of 1796 and the beginning of 1798 the sketches for the finale of the first sonata and for Sonatas two and three were made. The original edition was published by Eder in Vienna in September of that year. The integration of minuets into sonatas seems to have occupied Beethoven intensely. On a type of paper that Beethoven bought in Berlin in 1796 he wrote: “In den neuen Sonaten ganz kurze Menuetten. Zu der aus C moll bleibt das presto aus.” (GB-lbl, Add. Ms. 29801 [“Kafka”], folio 82recto, facsimile: Kerman/Kafka.)
After deciding to no longer use the material that would become Bagatella WoO 52 in the Sonatas Op. 10, he sketched another Minuet in C minor among the drafts of the finale of the first sonata. From these ideas was born the Allegretto in C minor for piano WoO 53. This piece was also not published in op. 10 number 1. The material for the Allegretto WoO 53 probably played a decisive role in the conception of the second movement of the second sonata. On a sheet of sketches from the late summer of 1797 (GB-Lbl, Add. Ms. 29801 [“Kafka”], folio 102recto, facsimile: Kerman/ Kafka), Beethoven noted: “Die Menuetten zu den Sonaten inskünftige nicht länger als von höchstens] 16 bis 24 T[akten]”. In the sketchbook called “Grasnick 1” (D-B, Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven Grasnick 1, folio 17versus) there is a sketch near which Beethoven noted: “Intermezzo zur Sonate aus c moll”. Gustav Nottebohm related them to op. 10 number 1 (Nottenbohm/Beethoveniana ll p. 479), but it cannot be excluded that this notation of the second half of 1798 refers to the composition of the programmed Opus 13 (the Sonate Pathetique was written between 1797 and 1799, see Op. 13). The publisher Joseph Eder of Vienna opened a subscription to the “3 sehr schöne[n] Klaviersonaten” in the Wiener Zeitung on 20 June 1798 (repeated on 23 and 27 June) with a duration of eight weeks, subscription price 3 guilders, then Retail price 3 fl 30 kr. An announcement of 7 July 1798 limited the period to six weeks, and on 26 September it was reported that op. 10 “bereits die Presse verlassen”.
Dedication: Anna Margarete Countess von Browne-Camus, née von Vietinghoff, born on 12 January 1769 in Riga and died on 13 May 1803 in Vienna, daughter of the privy councillor Otto Hermann von Vietinghoff (1722-1792) and his wife Anna Ulrika, née Countess Münnich, wife of Johann Georg Reichsgraf von Browne-Camus (1767-1827) from 22 August 1790. In 1794 or early 1795 she moved with her husband from Riga to Vienna. The variations WoO 71 (1797) and WoO 76 (1799) are also dedicated to the Countess of Browne-Camus. According to Ferdinand Ries, her husband gave Beethoven a saddle horse for the dedication of the variations of WoO 71 (Wegeler/Ries, p. 120). The Trii for strings op.9, the piano sonata op.22, the cello variations WoO 46 and the six Geliert-Lieder op.48 are dedicated to her husband, for him the song “Der Wachtelschlag” WoO 129 was composed (see also the Three marches op.45). For the relationship between Beethoven and the Browne-Camus couple, see op. 9.
First execution unknown.
Prima edizione: 1798 (Settembre). Wien, Joseph Eder, VN/PN 23. — Titel: “THREE SONATAS / for the / Harpsichord or Piano Forte / Composed and Dedicated / To Madame la Comtesse de Browne / née de Vietinghoff / by / LOUIS VAN BEETHOVEN. / Artwork 10. / in Vienna at Joseph Eder’s. on the Graben. /
The sketches will be covered in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center www.lvbeethoven.org
Opus 10 number 1 Sonata in C minor for piano
I) Allegro molto e con brio – II) Adagio molto – III) Finale – Prestissimo
Some similarity of elements of the first movement with others of Mozart’s Sonata K. 457 can be noted, in the same tone. The transition to the second theme is interesting, from which an original and delicate melodic episode will unfold in the development. D’Indy notes a Haydnian derivation of the second theme, as already in the Adagio of the Sonata op. 7 and as it will still be in the Fantasia op. 77, in the Minuet Trio of the Sonata op. 30 no. 3 for piano and violin, in the first movement of the Sonata op. 110 for piano, referable, we believe, to the theme of the second movement of the Symphony in G major number 88. A quiet sweetness, with episodes of more vibrant animation, characterizes the Adagio molto. The conclusion is particularly effective, like a grave harmony of bells that disperses in the depths. The tone of C minor regains its rights in the Finale, based on rhythmic elements that will then have their celebration in the Fifth Symphony. The second theme, a kind of horn call, blends harmoniously with the first in the conclusion in C major, serenely decrescendo.
Opus 10 number 2 sonata in F major for piano
I) Allegro II) – Allegretto – III) Finale – Presto
The Allegro has a dominant character of pleasantness and joke. In place of the slow tempo there is a dark-colored Allegretto in the first two parts in minor, suffused with a certain mystery also in the Trio in D flat major. The hammered rhythmic theme of the Finale (Presto) has been compared to that of the Fugue in F minor of the second part of the Well-Tempered Clavier and on the other hand, more generally, also to those of many harpsichord compositions of the second half of the seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century.
Opus 10 number 3 sonata in D major for piano
I) Presto – II) Largo e mesto – III) – Minuetto: Allegro – IV) Finale – Allegro
The Presto is dominated by the initial theme, whose nucleus of four notes forms the basis and support of the other constituent elements, which are moreover very varied and concurrent with the definition of a physiognomy that is at the same time serene and tumultuous. According to Schindler, Beethoven, in response to one of his questions, said that in order to understand the Largo e mesto there was no need for particular words that explained its meaning: “everyone will feel well that it expresses the state of mind in the grip of melancholy, with its different shades of light and shadow». However, it will be necessary to understand melancholy here not as a state of mind “of nostalgic and static contemplation”, but as a story of two musical moments variously developed and alternated: one gloomy, the other imploring; two different images of the same passion projected in the light of sound, which seem to approach, separate, sometimes retreat in front of each other, then tighten more closely and finally recompose themselves in unity just as they disappear. The melody of the Minuet — in which some reminiscence of songs from the French Revolution has been found — contrasts with that of the Largo and has some affinity with the corresponding Sonata op. 7. The Trio is more rustic and elementary with the extreme parts dialoguing on the margins of an arpeggio movement. A curious page is the Rondo, which announces itself with a three-note figure, ceremonious as a reverence, and then vents itself with a freedom and vivacity of moves that seem to betray at every moment a polite but tenacious rebellion against everything that smacks of a stereotyped compliment.
The 2″Largo e Mesto” Opus 10 number 3 is a part of the project “Research becomes Art”
A new life for the works of Ludwig van Beethoven: An artistic exploration By Carlo Bianchi. Live recording, January 18th, 2024, Brescia, Auditorium Polo culturale diocesano.
