Beethoven: Sonata No.3 in C Major, Op.2 No.3 (Jumppanen, Biret)

The third of the Op.2 Sonatas is the virtuoso showpiece of the set: it’s brilliant, extroverted, and gently humorous, filled with striking, motivic themes of the sort that are easily bent to developmental treatment. Its textures are distinctly concertante in nature: there are many passages that mimic orchestral tutti (0:19) or quartets (1:10), and there are Emperor-concerto-esque cadenzas at two points in the first movement (4:51; 8:00). The humour can be broad, as at 4:10 and 8:43, or subtle, as in the opening run of the 4th movement, the dissonances in the 3rd, or the false D major recapitulation and sudden harmonic changes in the 1st. Also notable about this sonata is the diversity of textures and figuration it contains: the 1st movement is symphonic, the 2nd Bachian (10:27), the 3rd delicate, with biting accents, and the 4th alternately impish and lyrical. MVT I, Allegro con brio 00:00 – Theme Group 1, Theme 1. The first 2 measures contain M1 in RH 00:19 – Theme Group 1, Theme 2. Like an orchestral tutti 00:31 – Theme Group 1, Theme 3 00:40 – Theme Group 2, Theme 1. G min/D min/A min 00:57 – Sequential move to G min 01:09 – Theme Group 2, Theme 2 01:32 – TG1, T2 interrupts, with new closing material 01:56 – Theme Group 2, Theme 3 (cadential theme), closing with broken octaves reminiscent of TG1, T2 DEVELOPMENT 04:39 – TG2, T3, moving into C min, F min, then reaches 04:51 – Cadenza beginning on dominant 7th of Eb. Bass rises by semitones, bringing us though remote harmonies 05:08 – TG1, T1 (in Ebb maj, but might as well call it D) 05:16 – Development of M1 05:40 – Dominant preparation, still using M1 RECAPITULATION 05:57 – TG1. At 6:10 the tail of M1 is developed in octaves with syncopation 06:32 – TG2 CODA 08:00 – Cadenza, moving from Ab to a C 6/4 08:38 – More development of M1, followed by typical cadential trill 08:46 – Return of TG1 T1. At 8:52 the tail of M1 is developed 09:14 – The movement ends using TG2 T3, much as the exposition did. MVT II, Adagio 09:26 – Main Theme 10:27 – Episode, Theme 1 11:03 – Episode, Theme 2 11:36 – Episode T1, repeat 12:26 – Episode T2, repeat (preparation for return of MT) 12:57 – Main Theme 13:57 – Bridge with main theme in C maj 14:09 – Episode, T1 14:30 – Episode, T2 15:10 – Main Theme 16:13 – Coda MVT III, Scherzo: allegro 16:57 – Scherzo, Strain 1 17:15 – Scherzo, Strain 2, ending with dominant preparation 17:29 – Scherzo, Strain 3, with codetta at 17:38 18:14 – Trio 18:47 – Scherzo 20:04 – Coda, with some delicious dissonances MVT IV, Allegro assai 20:22 – Theme, with 3 main ideas: (a), a rising scale, (b), the rocking figure (F-E-F-E-D) immediately after, and (c), a rapid semiquaver theme 20:39 – Transition, using the main theme 20:48 – Episode 1. At 21:12 dominant preparation, ending with (a) in dialogue 21:23 – Theme 21:30 – Transition. (a)+(b) in bass, moving into (ii), then (iii). At 21:39 the initial RH accompaniment is developed in a way that recalls (a) and (b). 21:53 – Episode 2. The second strain enters at 22:09. The return of the first strain at 22:31 harmonically rapidly diverges from the original, before dominant preparation using the second strain is reached at 22:53, ending with quotations of (a) 23:04 – Theme. At 23:11 it looks like the modulation will be repeated, but now the theme stays firmly in the same key throughout. 23:36 – Episode 1, in C. A brief foray into C min is followed by a sequence which rises instead of falling as it did earlier. 24:14 – Theme/Coda. Theme enters in LH, beneath trill. (b) is repeated thrice. 24:22 – Chromatic descent based on (b), followed by rising figure and further scales = (a), then lengthy dominant trill which is doubled and tripled as (a) decorates 24:48 – Theme in A, then re-attempted in A min, diverted to dominant, then (a) in LH answered by RH.