Opus 102 – Two Sonatas in C Major and D Major for Piano and Cello
Opus 102, two Sonatas in C major and D major for piano and cello, dedicated to Countess Erdödy, 1815 (no later than early August), published in Bonn by Simrock, March 1817. GA no. 108-109 (series 13/4-5) – B. 102 – KH. 102 – L. IV, p. 16 – N. 102 – T. 198
The original manuscripts are kept in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin and are dated 1815; that of the first sonata: “gegen Juli” (toward the end of July), that of the second: “anfangs August” (beginning of August). Sketches are reported by Nottebohm; for some of the second sonata, which is found in the Miller notebook of the L. Kock collection, the KH catalog provides information. These are Beethoven’s last sonatas for piano and cello and differ significantly from the three previous ones: not only, as is obvious, from the first two of Op. 5 (1796), but also from the third, Op. 69 (1807). They reveal a more restless, concise, and concentrated Beethoven, sometimes also more independent in form and in the way he treats the two instruments; yet they are of original and profound expressivity. They were composed for Countess Erdödy and the cellist Josef Linke, a highly esteemed concert and quartet player, also familiar with the Countess and a friend of the composer.
[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 102 Zwei Sonaten (C-dur, D-dur) für Klavier und Violoncello
Dedication: Anna Maria (Marie) Gräfin Erdödy NGA V/3 AGA 108-109 = Series 13/4-5
Creation and publication: The autograph date of the first sonata is “1815 Gegen Ende juli,” that of the second “anfangs August 1815.” Since the sketches for the final movement of the second sonata were conceived between September and November 1815, the work was probably completed in the autumn (JTW pp. 245 and 341), perhaps also in the first weeks of 1816 (Zanden/Op. 102). The original Bonn edition was published by Simrock in 1817, the original Vienna edition by Artaria in January 1819. Correspondence between Beethoven, Countess Erdödy, and the cellist Joseph Linke, who spent the summer of 1815 at the Countess’s estate in Jedlesee near Vienna, indicates that the two sonatas were commissioned by the Countess. She, as pianist, and Joseph Linke were indicated as the first performers (BGA 800, 826, 833, 835).
Three copies of each of the two sonatas by Wenzel Rampl have survived. The copies used as engraving models for Simrock contain numerous corrections and additions by Beethoven, which had already been implemented in the copies given to Charles Neate at the beginning of 1816 (Brandeburg/Violoncello, pp. 25f). Bonn edition: on September 28, 1816, Beethoven signed a certificate of ownership of the sonatas for Simrock in Bonn (TDR IV p. XI). The contract occurred when Peter Joseph, son of Nikolaus Simrock, visited Beethoven in Vienna at the end of the summer of 1816. Beethoven informed Simrock about Op. 101 on February 15, 1817, but probably meant only the most recent work published (BGA 1084, note 1). No announcement has yet been established for the Simrock edition. There is no evidence for the dating proposed by Georg Kinsky as March 1817 (Easter Mass) (KH p. 283) or for that given by Alexander W. Thayer as spring 1817 (TDR III p. 529). Albi Rosenthal (Rosenthal/Op. 102) considers March 1817 too early, since in April 1817 Beethoven was still trying to finalize the sale of Op. 102 in England (BGA 1116), and the Simrock edition was only announced in May 1818 in the AmZ under “neue Musikalien.”
In a review of November 11, 1818 (AmZ 20, 1818, col. 792-794), the piano reduction is described as: “Viel schwerer würde aber die Ausführung für beyde Spieler seyn, hätte nicht der kunstverständige Verleger dem Pianoforte durchgehends die Violoncellstimme in kleinen Noten auf besonderer Zeile übersetzen lassen; wodurch das Verständnis und jene Uebereinstimmung gar sehr erleichtert wird.”
For the edition published in Vienna in January 1819, Artaria used the copies made by Wenzel Rampl drawn from Archduke Rudolph’s music library, which Beethoven borrowed for this purpose (he also obtained the original edition, of which he had not received copies from Bonn (BGA 1278, 1284). In returning the copies to Rudolph, Beethoven wrote: “Es folgen nebst tiefster Danksagung die Sonaten, nur fehlt das Violonzell noch glaube ich, welche Stimme ich nicht gleich gefunden habe, da der Stich schön ist, so habe ich mir die Freyheit genommen, ein gestochenes Exemplar nebst einem Violin quintett beyzulegen.”
Unlike Simrock’s edition, the Artaria edition shows a dedication to Countess Erdödy, which may only have been added by Beethoven himself. Therefore, the Artaria edition should not be considered a mere reprint of the original Simrock edition but a legitimate edition. The edition was announced in the Wiener Zeitung on January 13, 1819 (“erscheinen nächstfolgende Woche die zwey neuen Sonaten […] für das Pianoforte und Violoncell oder Violin, der Frau Gräfinn Marie v. Erdödy […] gewidmet”) and on February 25 as “erschienen,” with the addition: “Da die Violoncell-Stimme dieser Sonaten sehr gut geeignet war, mit gleicher Wirkung auch durch eine Violine vorgetragen zu werden, so hat die genannte Kunsthandlung diese Einrichtung um so lieber besorgen lassen, als dadurch der Genuß dieser ausgezeichneten Composition sowohl dem grössten Theil der Kunstliebhaber als Künstler zu Theil werden konnte.” The violin part is most likely not original by Beethoven (Dufner/NGA V/3 KB p. 38).
It was only in 1819, when it became clear that Neate’s efforts to publish the sonatas in London had not succeeded, that Beethoven fulfilled the promise made to Countess Erdödy and dedicated the works to her, and her name consequently appeared in Artaria’s Vienna edition. First performance unknown. Early private performances with Countess Erdödy or Beethoven at the piano and Joseph Linke at the cello likely took place in 1815 and early 1816. Anton Schindler reports that one sonata was performed at Linke’s farewell concert on February 18, 1816, in the hall of the hotel “Zum Römeren Kaiser” in Vienna, with Carl Czerny at the piano (TDR III p. 549; see also BGA 902).
Sketches are preserved in all major European libraries.
- No. 1 / II: PL-Kj, Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven Mend.-Stift. 1 (“Mendelssohn 1”), pp. 14, 24? Dating: early/mid-1815, in Nottebohm/Beethoveniana II p. 316, facsimile: SBB
- No. 2/1?: F-Pc (in: Pn), Ms 100, folio. Part of a notebook from 1814/15 (JTW pp. 235-240). Dating: December 1814, facsimile: Gallica
- No. 2/1—III: US-PRscheide (Dpt. in US-PRu), M. 130 (“Scheide”), pp. 37, 41, 43-47. Dating: September–November 1815, partial transcription: Nottebohm/Beethoveniana II pp. 325f
- No. 2/II-III: PL-Kj, Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven Mend.-Stift. 1 (“Mendelssohn 1”), pp. 32f, 36, 38-55, 57-60. Dating: September–November 1815, partial transcription: Nottebohm/Beethoveniana II pp. 318f, facsimile: SBB
- No. 2/III: NL-DHk, fol. 1. Facsimile and transcription: Zanden/Op. 102
- No. 2/III: D-BNba, Slg. H. C. Bodmer, HCB Mh 92, 8 sheets. Reference signals show a direct connection to the previous source; see Zanden/Op. 102. Facsimile: BH/online
- No. 2/III (Fugue): A-Wgm, A 50. Part of the “Landsberg 8/2” notebook (JTW pp. 292-298) Date: May or early June 1824 (see Dufner/NGA V/3 KB pp. 33f)
- No. 2/III: GB-Lbl, Add. Ms. 29997, fol. 13v
Opus 102 number 1 Sonata in C major for piano and cello
I) Andante – Allegro vivace – II) Adagio – tempo d’ andante – allegro vivace.
It consists of three movements, without an introduction, each with its own distinct character. The first is in regular sonata form, with the principal theme, stated by the piano, marked by a resolute energy that Bekker finds already expressed in the “leaping octaves and tenths, full of impetus, of the opening.”
The cello then enters, with a warmer yet equally vigorous voice, which expands more fully in the phrase of the second theme and in the festive cadence that concludes the exposition. Brevity and concision characterise the entire movement, as in the preceding sonata. But after the recapitulation there follows a more extended coda, which, beginning with a final “quotation” of both themes in their typical opening figures, leads through a pianissimo passage, by means of a broad succession of chords, to a forceful conclusion built upon the motion of the first theme.
The Adagio is one of Beethoven’s great pages—one of those soul’s soliloquies which, in solitary contemplation, seems to reach the ultimate source of all sorrow and all joy, reconciling them in a higher vision that is both resigned and trusting. The theme, in slow, symmetrical phrases like those of a chorale, is stated in a chordal texture, meditative, religious in spirit, and not without some dark inflections. It then blossoms into more fluid and ornamented melodic passages, in which the same quality of passionate melancholy still resonates; it brightens into the expansive, still slow, lyricism of a major-key song, which represents its ideological and spiritual fulfilment; finally, it is restated in its original form and key.
A suspended chord cuts off its conclusion to allow the final Allegro to emerge—a fugue. Something, perhaps also due to the common key of D minor, links this Adagio to the corresponding movement of the first Trio, Op. 70, likewise dedicated to Countess Erdődy; and one might also think, by distant and perhaps fleeting analogy of “musical mood,” of the slow movements of the Piano Sonatas Op. 10 No. 3 and Op. 28, and of the symphonic episode of the death of Chiarina in Egmont.
The fugue of the concluding Allegro, which begins in so graceful a manner, fulfils the same function as all the fugues Beethoven placed at the end of his sonatas or quartets: an awakening, a release from the depths of dream or contemplative surrender, a return—whether spontaneous or deliberate—to life. At first it is light, almost playful, then gradually becomes more complex, even, at times, somewhat obstinate; yet in the end it arrives at a victorious affirmation, reconnecting, in its own way, with the resolute and joyful spirit that characterised the first movement.
[By Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]
Opus 102 number 2 Sonata in D mjor for piano and cello
I) Allegro con brio – II) Adagio con molto sentimento d’ affetto – III) Allegro – Allegro fugato.
Beethoven called it free, and so it is when compared with the more traditional formal pattern. It consists of three movements, with the Adagio and the final Allegro vivace joined without interruption. In the first movement—also an Allegro vivace, preceded by a broad introduction (Andante) that is gentle, melodic, and tranquil—lies the principal interest of the work.
The opening theme dominates almost entirely, imposed with its marked rhythmic figure by the two instruments in quadruple octaves on the notes of the A minor chord, followed, after a few reflective transitional bars, by an agitated and vibrant triplet motion that the cello passes on to the piano. This acts as a continuation or expressive complement—almost a lyrical relaxation—which gradually dissolves in the closing cadence of the exposition. The development is very brief, remaining entirely grounded in the same initial thematic material; likewise, after the recapitulation, the conclusion follows the same concise path.
The Adagio has no strongly marked character other than that which arises from its short melodic phrases, adorned with ornamental flourishes and touched by occasional shadows—a serene stasis overall, intensified by the return, at a certain point, of the Andante introduction from the first movement, which then resolves into the entry of the final Allegro vivace.
This last movement is rather fanciful, treated once again in a sonata-like form sui generis, dominated by a small theme comparable to a series of interjected phrases—alternately expressive of impatience, determination, or friendly disagreement—by turns witty and stubborn, as in a dialogue between two people who sometimes converse amiably, sometimes contradict or quarrel, and at moments fall into temporary gravity. Polyphonic ideas alternate with compact rhythmic surges, almost dance-like in their energy.
[By Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]
