Opus 23 Sonata in A minor, for piano and violin
I) Presto- II) Andante scherzoso, piu’ allegretto – III) Allegro molto.
Opus 23 Sonata in A minor, for piano and violin, op. 23, dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries, 1800-1801, published in Vienna, Mollo, October 1801. GA. no. 95 (series 12/4) – B. 23 – KH. 23 – L. II, p. 35 – N. 23 – P. 118 – T. 82. The original manuscript is lost. The sketches can be found in the Landsberg sketchbook.
In that edition, this sonata was published alongside the next one in F major (now called Op. 24), under a single opus number, Op. 23, entitled: “Deux Sonates pour le Piano-Forte avec un violon, composées et dediées à Monsieur le Comte Maurice de Fries”, and so forth. The distinction into two separate opus numbers was made at a later stage.
The Presto movement is marked by a persistent sense of melancholy. Despite the brisk tempo, the continual use of the minor key and recurring rhythmic patterns maintain a sombre mood that remains largely undispelled. A momentary sense of relief emerges at the beginning of the development section, where the violin introduces a flowing melody over a bass line derived from the opening two bars of the theme.
The second movement may, in certain respects, be regarded as a distant forerunner of the Allegretto scherzando from the Eighth Symphony. Its delicate contrapuntal textures also recall similar passages found in the First Symphony and the String Quartet, Op. 18 No. 4.
Among the various episodes in the final Allegro—whose refrain echoes the atmosphere of the first movement—the third stands out. It features one of those expansive, chorale-like passages that Beethoven had previously employed in works such as the finales of the Septet and the Pathétique Sonata. In both scale and treatment, it bears a striking resemblance to the comparable episode in the finale of the String Quartet, Op. 18 No. 5. This passage also briefly reappears in the coda.
Schering traced the inspiration for this work to certain scenes from Goethe’s Ervino und Elmira (specifically the original 1775 version, conceived as a drama with music and dialogue). In the first part, Elmira is overcome with sorrow after her beloved Ervino, wounded by her coldness, has left her and departed for foreign lands. The elderly servant Bernardo, in speaking of Ervino, rekindles both longing and regret within her. The second movement corresponds to the ‘Violet Song’: “Ein Veilchen auf der Wiese stand”. In the third movement, Ervino, now living in a distant village, tends to his garden and, upon seeing a withered rose, is moved to recall his beloved with a deep sense of nostalgia.
[By Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]
Origin and Publication: The work was sketched in the summer/autumn of 1800. In April 1801, Beethoven offered the sonata together with Op. 24, likely to the publisher Mollo in Vienna (3GA 59). It is possible that Op. 23 was also among the works Beethoven had already “schon verhandelt” (already negotiated) in December 1800 (BGA 49). The original edition in parts was published by Mollo in October 1801.
Beethoven outlined the general conception of Sonatas Op. 22–24 in the sketchbook known as “Sommer 1800”. The note “Sonata 3” on an early draft for Op. 24 suggests that a group of three sonatas was originally planned, and that the differing instrumentation only crystallised during the later stages of drafting.
In October 1801, Mollo & Comp. published two sonatas for piano and violin under the shared title “Deux Sonates […] Oeuvre XXIII”. The piano part appeared in a 35-page horizontal-format booklet, while the violin parts were issued in two separate booklets of seven pages each, and in differing formats: “Sonata I” in portrait format, “Sonata II” in landscape.
Shortly thereafter, the edition was split into two separate publications. The title on the cover was changed from “Deux Sonates” to “Sonate”, though the plural phrase “composées et dediées” was retained in the internal text, as was the continuous page numbering (18–35) in the piano part of the second sonata, which was subsequently assigned the opus number 24.
The separation likely occurred in spring 1802, as both Op. 23 and Op. 24 were already in stock at Breitkopf & Härtel by April 1802, available for one thaler each, as announced in the Leipziger Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung.
Gustav Nottebohm speculated that the reason for the separation lay in the differing formats of the violin parts (Nottebohm/Beethoveniana II, p. 236). Hans-Werner Küthen, on the other hand, highlights the advantages of separating the sonatas and notes, among other things, the rapid popularity of the Frühlings-Sonate (Op. 24).
However, assigning Op. 24 to the second sonata created a conflict with the existing Op. 24 designation of the piano reduction of Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, which had been published by Artaria in June 1801 (see Op. 43).
Mollo’s original edition, “Deux Sonates […] Oeuvre XXIII”, was quickly adopted in Paris by both Cochet and Pleyel. In the absence of advertising, it is not possible to determine definitively which edition appeared first. Küthen gives priority to Cochet, whose piano part—unlike Pleyel’s—deviates significantly from Mollo’s edition (though it also contains more errors), suggesting that Cochet may have worked from his own manuscript source.
In subsequent separate editions by various publishers, Op. 23 and 24 were issued with independent plate numbers and publisher details, but the original link between the two is evident in the reuse of shared title pages with the opus number inserted by hand. Sometimes, the plate numbers of both sonatas were engraved together on the title page.
Dedication: The work is dedicated to Moritz Johann Christian, Count von Fries, born on 6 May 1777 in Vienna and died on 26 December 1826 in Paris — an industrialist and banker. He was the son of Anne d’Echerny and Count Johann Fries (1719–1785), who had founded the firm Fries & Co. in Vienna in 1766, together with Baron Johann Jakob Gontard. The company, in addition to a well-respected bank, also operated factories, textile mills, and numerous estates with associated agricultural enterprises.
Moritz von Fries was married to Princess Maria Theresia Josepha Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst on 15 October 1800, and later remarried (Paris, 1825) to Fanny Münzenberg. After studying law in Leipzig from 1794 to 1797, he joined Fries & Co. in Vienna, where he held the majority of shares.
Fries was considered the wealthiest man in Austria, a noted art collector and patron, and owner of an enormous library comprising 16,000 volumes. Johann Gottfried Seume described Fries in his Spaziergang nach Syrakus im Jahre 1802:
“Der Graf erinnerte sich meiner mit Güte von der Akademie her, und seine Freundlichkeit und Gefälligkeit gegen Fremde, so wie sein Enthusiasmus für Kunst und Wissenschaft, in denen er seinen besten Genuß hat, sind allgemein bekannt.”
Fries was also a passionate music lover and a founding committee member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, serving as its vice-president from 1815 to 1817. He hosted concerts in his home, and it was there, in the spring of 1800, that the famous musical duel between Beethoven and Daniel Steibelt took place.
Beethoven often used Fries & Co.’s communication and transport infrastructure to manage his correspondence and business dealings with George Thomson in Edinburgh and the publishing house B. Schott’s Söhne in Mainz.
Despite his enormous wealth, Fries’s extravagant lifestyle led to the bankruptcy of the bank on 29 April 1826. By 1825, his son Moritz (1804–1887) had already taken over management of the bank. The family’s estates and houses were sold off, as was the renowned art collection. Fries’s dramatic downfall is believed to have inspired Ferdinand Raimund’s play Der Verschwender (1834).
In addition to the violin sonatas Op. 23 and 24, works dedicated to Moritz von Fries include Beethoven’s String Quintet Op. 29 (1801) and Symphony No. 7, Op. 92 (1816), as well as Haydn’s final string quartet (1806; Hob. III:83) and Schubert’s Lied Gretchen am Spinnrade (1821; D 118). It is also possible that Beethoven intended to dedicate the WoO 46 variations to Countess Fries.
First performance: Unknown.
The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org
