In the summer of 1819, Adolf Martin Schlesinger, from the Schlesinger firm of music publishers based in Berlin, offered to purchase three piano sonatas at 90 ducats (30 ducats each) directly from Beethoven in April 1820, though Beethoven had originally asked for 120 ducats. In May 1820, Beethoven agreed, and he undertook to deliver the sonatas within three months. These three sonatas are the ones now known as Opp.109, 110, and 111, the last of Beethoven's piano sonatas. The composer was prevented from completing the promised sonatas on schedule by several factors, including his work on the Missa solemnis (Op.123), rheumatic attacks in the winter of 1820, and a bout of jaundice in the summer of 1821.
Op.110 did not begin to take shape until the latter half of 1821. Correspondence shows that Op.110 was still not ready by the middle of December 1821. The sonata's completed autograph score bears the date 25 December 1821; Beethoven continued to revise the last movement and did not finish until early 1822. The copyist's score was presumably delivered to Schlesinger around this time, since Beethoven received a payment of 30 ducats for this sonata in January 1822. The original edition was published by Schlesinger in Paris and Berlin in 1822 without dedication, though there is evidence that Beethoven intended to dedicate Opp.110 and 111 to Antonie Brentano. An English edition was published by Muzio Clementi in 1823.

The three movements are:-
1. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo (at a moderate, singing style speed, and with much expression) It is in 3/4 time.
2. Allegro molto (very fast), a scherzo in 2/4 time.
(Beethoven indulged in the rougher side of his humour by using motifs from two folk songs, "Unsa kätz häd kaz'ln g'habt" ("Our cat has had kittens") and "Ich bin lüderlich, du bist lüderlich" ("I am a draggle-tail, you are a draggle-tail", from draggle - - to make wet and muddy by dragging along the ground, and‎ 'tail', implying that such a person's gown trailed in the mud or along the ground).
3. This movement's structure alternates two slow aria-like sections with two faster fugue ones:
the opening is marked Adagio ma non troppo (very slow, but not too slow) in 4/4 time; this leads to a fugue marked Allegro ma non troppo (fast, but not too much): then the music indication is l'istesso tempo di arioso (the same speed as the aria heard at the beginning) and then back to the fugue, followed by a decrease in speed to build up to the finale.

It is not too fanciful to see the final movement's second fugue as a gathering of confidence after illness or despair, a theme which can be discerned in other late works by Beethoven. This movement is the first time in the history of music where the academic devices of counterpoint and fugue are integral to a composition's drama, and Beethoven, in this work, does not simply symbolise or represent the return to life, but persuades us physically of the process.

(Beethoven was 50 years old when he completed this sonata, at a time when he had been totally deaf for many years. It is dreadful to lose one of the main senses, but particularly so if one is a musician. By all accounts, he was a magnificent performer, and his ability to improvise was second to none. At this age he could not hear a note that he played, and, so, performing was out of the question. When he occasionally conducted an orchestra he would flail his arms around, probably not in time with the musicians who would keep together regardless of his conducting, and, when the work finished he had to be turned round to see the audience wildly applauding because he did not hear any of the commotion caused by his wonderful compositions.
The opening of this sonata begins with a very introvert theme, almost as if Beethoven is conversing with God. The following arpeggio motif is magically moulded to act as the accompaniment with the first theme.
The second movement is very rambunctious: it is very difficult to keep up with the wild swings in tempo as we are drag along in a whirlwind!!
The third movement brings out the innermost sadness and despair that Beethoven has with his deafness: in both arias we can sense the inward sobbing that he had with his affliction. Not only is he shut off from music, but also with human contact in conversation, and, of course, female company: any hopes of marriage would be off the table. He was then, and possibly still is, the greatest composer, but I think he would have sacrificed that title to be able to hear normally).


GlynGlynn, alias GB, realiser.
Please feel free to leave any comments, be they good, bad, or indifferent as to whether the piece, or the performance, moved you in any way whatsoever!

(Since music is an aural art, and not a visual one, it is best to listen to these pieces, and other artists performances, with eyes closed, so as to be able to listen intently as to how the music is portrayed).