Appassionata Sonata

The Appassionata is Beethoven at his most tempestuous — he reportedly said it was his greatest piano sonata, then immediately decided the Hammerklavier surpassed it — and it earns that early confidence. The opening gesture is a bare, low unison in F minor, soft and ominous, followed by a leap upward that compresses an enormous harmonic tension into two bars. The development that follows over the next several minutes is relentless: sudden dynamic shifts from pianissimo to fortissimo without preparation, cascading scale passages in both hands that demand physical commitment from the pianist, and a harmonic restlessness that passes through keys with barely any arrival. The middle movement is an Andante con moto — variations on a theme of chorale-like simplicity, tender and slow, which makes the violent eruption of the finale more shocking when it arrives with almost no transition. The last movement is perpetual motion in F minor, eighth notes driving without interruption toward its final pages where the tempo marking changes to Presto and the music accelerates beyond what seems physically possible. Beethoven composed it during his unrequited love for Josephine von Brunsvik, and the emotional charge of romantic frustration converted into sonic architecture is palpable throughout. It requires a listener willing to be overwhelmed rather than simply appreciative.