Biamonti 490 – Concert Piece (note), 1809. Included in the group of sheets described by Nottebohm, under number 477 and following, and reported as follows: “At the beginning, this annotation: Schluss eines Stück, welches in g moll anfangt (‘Ending of a piece that begins in G minor’) and at the end: Vielleicht das erste Allegro eines Stücks in einem Conzert so schliessen und nicht in der Tonart selbst, endlich das letzte Stück im eigentlichen Ton, worin das erste angefangen (‘Perhaps to conclude the first Allegro of a piece in a concert in this way, and not in the same key; finally, the last piece in the actual key in which the first began’).”

New observations from the Beethoven Music Research Center (May 2024): This note, like the others preceding it, is found in the Landsberg 5 Skizzenbuch, on page 76, from stave 8 to the bottom of the page. Nottebohm provides no further information beyond what is cited by Biamonti. In fact, the sketch is written only on staves 9–12; the rest of the lower page consists of Beethoven’s original commentary.

Rather than a note for a concert piece, as Biamonti defines it, we might more accurately call this sketch a “Study for the final Cadenza of a first movement in a Piano Concerto in G minor.” Beethoven himself refers to it as: “Ending of a piece that begins in G minor” […] “Perhaps to conclude the first Allegro of a piece in a concert in this way.”

Given its structure, it is certainly a sketch for a cadenza: the first three bars consist of suspended arpeggios with fermatas, while the second part is also a cadential formula that resolves to the dominant of the principal key. Even Brenneis, in his analysis of the entire Landsberg 5 sketchbook, writes: “Konzept für die tonartliche Gestaltung der Satzschlüsse in einem Klavierkonzert in g-moll” (“Concept for the tonal design of movement endings in a piano concerto in G minor”).

Since this is a note written as a personal reminder, Beethoven does not always indicate all accidentals, assuming they apply to subsequent notes in the arpeggio. Therefore, the first arpeggio should be considered as B diminished, the second as C minor (or more precisely, C minor seventh), and the third as F-sharp diminished, which resolves into the principal key of G minor, and thus concludes on its dominant. Nottebohm, in his analysis found on page 270 of Zweite Beethoveniana, transcribes Beethoven’s sketch exactly, without indicating the accidentals omitted by Beethoven.

Some doubts regarding this sketch:

1. It is not entirely clear in which meter it should be considered; in the first arpeggio, Beethoven indicates a left-hand chord in 2/4 time, while the second and third are written in 3/4 (we might hypothesize an oversight in the first); the absence of bar lines also makes it difficult to define the meter.
2. In the second part of the sketch, we find a figuration again in 3/4 – F-sharp (♯), high G, low G – followed by a cadential formula with two minim chords (the first in D major, the second in E minor seventh) and a final whole-note chord, again in D major, this time with bar lines indicating that the cadenza is coming to a close.

We have accepted Brenneis’s version as valid, except for the penultimate chord, where we personally read in the right hand the chord D–E–G.