The Beethoven Sonata in B-flat, Op. 106 is truly gargantuan. In its emotional range, its technical difficulty, its sheer length, it exceeded any predecessor.
No strangers to marketing, Beethoven’s Viennese publishers announced the new sonata in 1819 as a work that “excels above all other creations of this master not only through its most rich and grand fantasy but also in regard to artistic perfection and sustained style, and will mark a new period in Beethoven’s pianoforte works.”
Thrilling for the audience and treacherous for the pianist, a sudden leap of the left hand and a fanfare of fortissimo chords seem to grab and shake the piano into life. Immediately, this forceful entry is countered by calm, establishing the oratorical pattern of declaration and subsequent assessment, tension and relaxation, which pervades the first movement.
As an change from the constant striving that precedes it, the second movement Scherzo defuses the mood with humor and brevity; and then we have a transition to the unprecedented mournfulness of the immense Adagio third movement.
The final movement enters quietly and tentatively; Then, following gradually more optimistic trills, like a door suddenly thrown open, the great fugue of the fourth movement commences.
Unrestrained, outrageous, and ecstatic, the movement is not strictly a fugue. Beethoven explained that “making a fugue is no art… But fantasy also claims its right….” In the score we find the instruction “Fuga a tre voci con alcune licenze” (fugue in three voices, with some license).
Here is pianist Yuja Wand to play this amazing work for you:
