Opus 90 Sonata in E minor for Piano
I) Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und Ausdruck – II) Nicht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorzutragen
OPUS 90 – Sonata in E minor for piano, Op. 90, dedicated to Count Moritz Lichnowsky, 3 June – 16 August 1814, published in Vienna by Steiner, June 1815. GA. 150 (series 16/27) – B. 90 – KH. 90 – L. III, p. 229 – N. 90 – T. 186
The original manuscript, says the KH catalogue (1955), is in the possession of T. Odling in London. The sketches, which are found after those for the second Finale of the last version of Fidelio, are reported by Nottebohm. This Sonata has its own story, recounted by Schindler. Beethoven is said to have wished to symbolise the love affair of Prince Moritz Lichnowsky who, overcoming family opposition and class prejudice, had finally decided to marry, for his second marriage, a singer from the Vienna Opera. The first movement was meant to express a Struggle between the head and the heart and to convey the indecision and inner conflict of the noble friend; the second, the Conversation with the beloved, was instead intended to depict the happy and peaceful married life that followed so many anxieties.
That this anecdote should be regarded, like many others, as a joke — Beethoven also amused himself at times by mystifying his admirers — is clear from a passage in the Conversation Books. But the artist’s privileged spirit has elevated the music into a poem of melancholy and sweetness. In the first movement, the interweaving of themes and their connections is of such organic unity that it gives the whole the character of a poem governed by a single idea. One should note the stepwise progress in short, broken phrases of the opening theme and the pleading, restless response of the legato phrase (one is reminded, by analogy, of the first movement of the Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 127), the harmonious use of octaves, both in the transition to the second theme and in the second part of it, so lyrically expanded later in the descending melodic figure up to the cadence (whose sudden surge recalls the Scherzo of the Quartet, Op. 59 No. 2); and also the formation of the first part of the second theme itself, which emphasises the use of short, broken phrases already employed in the first theme.
Notice also the delicate, novel lyricism of the development, with the expressive intensification of the various aforementioned elements leading up to the passage that introduces the recapitulation, where the three-note figure resolving on the tonic seems, as it hastens and overlaps itself (through a harmonic device recalling a similar passage at the end of the first movement of Op. 81a and of the Eroica Symphony), to multiply its windings. Again, after the recapitulation, one can observe the gradual fading away of all forms in the pianissimo conclusion, delaying. The principal theme is derived from one of the Bagatelles, Op. 33, marked “With a certain speaking expression”, a character here even more pronounced. The first movement contrasts — though gently and peacefully — with the second and final one.
It represents, after so much restless melancholy, a moment of serenity, unfolding at length in a rondo form that seems the most natural, with its recurring returns, to express the gentle indolence of feeling. Musically, however, this feeling is animated by subtle fluctuations of colour through the secondary elements that link the various reappearances of the refrain. We may say, with Scuderi, that “the new design of the phrase in B major, to which the triplets in the bass lend a more vibrant rhythmic character” (and which Casella compares to the major theme of the Allegretto from the Seventh Symphony) “seems as though it might create a dramatic contrast; but it is only a fleeting moment, soon lost in the return of the rondo movement, in which reappears the tender lyrical note that pervades the whole movement, whether fully expressed in the melodic outline of the rondo theme itself, or in the brief minor passages, the attempted rhythmic diversions, and the contrasting phrase.”
We cannot fail to notice the affinity between the theme of this rondo and that of a song which, as Wegeler reports, Beethoven had often heard sung in Bonn by the young Jeannette d’Honrath, whom he had met at the Breuning household and for whom he is said to have felt a tender affection at the time. The words of the song also have a certain connection with the tale of Count Lichnowsky’s little romance: “Mich heute noch von dir zu trennen und dieses nicht zu ändern können schlägt zu empfindsam dieses Herz” (“To part from you even today, and to be unable to prevent it, strikes this heart so tenderly”).
[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 90 Sonate (e-moll) für Klavier Widmung: Moritz Graf von Lichnowsky NGA VII/4 AGA 150 = Serie 16/27
Origin and publication: The surviving sketches date from the summer of 1814; the transcription of the autograph score is dated 16 August. On 21 September Beethoven announced the dedication to Count Lichnowsky: „ich [sage] ihnen, daß bald eine Sonate von mir erscheinen wird, die ich ihnen gewidmet“. The original edition was published by Steiner in Vienna in June 1815.
The fair-copy autograph, used as the model for engraving, was in the possession of Archduke Rudolph in the autumn of 1814. Beethoven requested it back in order to give it to the publisher S. A. Steiner, to whom he had promised it on 21 October as security for a loan. The manuscript was again sent to Rudolph in March 1815, only to be returned shortly afterwards to Steiner for the correction of the proofs (the Archduke eventually had a copy of the sonata made for his own collection).
Steiner’s colleague, Anton Diabelli, probably carried out the first correction, which Beethoven himself subsequently reviewed. On 29 May 1815 Beethoven asked Steiner to return the manuscript (BGA 808). At the beginning of June (BGA 812: after 6 June) the composer again requested the manuscript from the publisher, having found a few errors here and there. If the announcement in the Wiener Zeitung of 6 June 1815 (numerous reprints from 9 June onwards) was not premature – „Allen Kennern und Freunden der Tonkunst wird die Erscheinung dieser Sonate gewiß sehr willkommen sein, da nun seit mehreren Jahren von L. van Beethoven nichts für s Piano-Forte erschienen ist“ – the first copies of the original edition were delivered at the latest after those errors had been corrected.
Beethoven discovered other doubtful passages. On 27 June he wrote: „Wenn nicht Morgen Abends zwischen 6 und 7 uhr, das Exemplar, welches ich dem Adjutanten des G. 1. [„Generalleutnant“ Steiner] Tobias Haßlinger korrigirt übergeben von der Sonate, Samt einem ändern, worin keine Fehler mehr sind. |: So daß man Sieht, daß die Fehler in den Kupferplaten verbessert sind : | so zu sagen das korrigirte (von mir) und das Fehlerfreye in meinen Händen sind, so beschließen wir, was folgt: Der G. L. wird einstweilen suspendirt, Sein Adjutant T.[obias] H.[aslinger] kreuzweiß ge-schloßen; – unser Generalprofoß Diabolus Diabelli wird mit Vollziehung dessen beauftragt werden“ (BGA 814).
This apparently led to subsequent corrections of the plates, so that two distinct phases of the original edition can be identified. A copy in Archduke Rudolph’s musical collection also contains two handwritten corrections. Probably soon after the corrected edition, Steiner issued a new engraving reproducing the text of the earlier edition and the title unchanged. The autograph engraving model was no longer included.
Steiner & Comp. advertised this reprint in the Wiener Zeitung of 22 January 1816 as „ganz neu erschienen und zu haben“ for 3 florins. When the original edition appeared, Steiner offered Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig over 100 untitled copies. After some negotiation, Gottfried Christoph Härtel accepted the proposal on condition that it be sent at least 14 days before Steiner’s own publication and that the price not be too high (Breitkopf & Härtel archive). Apparently, the same or a similar offer from Steiner was also made to Simrock in Bonn; it appears that Simrock received copies of both the ante correcturam and post correcturam editions from Steiner.
Dedication: (For information on Count Lichnowsky, see Opus 35.) The dedication of the sonata was a gesture of gratitude for the efforts Lichnowsky made to intercede with the British plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna, Viscount Henry Robert Stewart Castlereagh (1769–1822), who in turn interceded with the English Prince Regent George, who granted the composer a recognition for the dedication of „Wellingtons Sieg“ op. 91.
Shortly after completing the sonata, Beethoven wrote to Lichnowsky from Baden on 21 September 1814: „daß bald eine Sonate von mir erscheinen wird, die ich ihnen gewidmet, ich wollte sie überraschen, denn längst war diese Dedikation ihnen bestimmt […] keines neuen Anlaßes brauchte es, um ihnen meine Gefühle für ihre Freundschaft und Wohlwollen öffentlich darzulegen — […] was sie mir von Lord Castleregt sagen, so finde ich die sache auf s beste eingeleitet, sollte ich eine meynung hierin haben, so glaube ich, daß es am Besten seyn würde, daß lord castleregt nicht eher schrieb wegen dem werk auf Wellington, als bis der Lord es hier gehört“ (BGA 740).
As for Beethoven’s alleged remark, transmitted through Schindler, that the sonata represents the Count’s love story with his second wife (Schindler/Beethoven 1860 vol. 1 p. 241 f.), the singer Josefa Stummer (1790–1849) should not be taken seriously.
First performance: Probably on 11 February 1816, at the farewell concert for Johann Baptist Stainer von Felsburg (1756–1832) by Ignaz Schuppanzigh in Vienna (Schindler/Beethoven 1860 vol. 1 p. 240, there erroneously identified as Op. 101). A review of the concert reads: „Eine neue, hier zum erstenmale gehörte Klavier-Sonate dieses Meisters überraschte alle seine zahlreichen Verehrer. Der geniale Tonsetzer war selbst zugegen, und erfreute sich sowol der trefflichen Ausführung, als auch des enthusiastischen Antheils der gewählten Versammlung.“ (AmZ 18, 1816, 20 März 1816, column 197.)
The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org
.. From the Library of the Beethovenian Music Research Center www.lvbeethoven.org
Opus 90 Sonata in E minor for piano – First Italian edition: In Florence, at the Music Engraving House of Giuseppe Lorenzi, on the Piazza di S. Lorenzo, at the Sign of Orpheus. (1816)
The texts and documents on this page are edited by Luigi Bellofatto.
