The finale of Op 109 consists of a theme and six variations, with the theme resembling a sarabande and marked 'Songful with most intimate feeling'.
Composition History
Beethoven's last three piano sonatas, Opp 109-111, were commissioned by the publisher Adolf Schlesinger of Berlin, marking a shift from private patronage to market economics.
Composition History
The first movement of Op 109 was originally composed for a piano tutor by Beethoven's friend Friedrich Starke, before being incorporated into the sonata for Schlesinger.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Beethoven's last three sonatas, Opp 109-111, are completely different from each other and from his previous sonatas, yet are best heard together as a cycle with contrasted and balanced keys.
Compositional Technique
Beethoven's Op 110 features a complex finale combining a vocal-style recitative, a 'lamenting song', and a fugue that builds to a climax, subsides, and returns inverted before a triumphant conclusion.
Compositional Technique
The second movement of Op 111, an 'Arietta' with variations, features a consistent underlying pulse and increasingly complex subdivisions of the beat, leading to notational peculiarities that perplexed early reviewers.
Composer Biography
Beethoven dedicated Op 109 to Maximiliane Brentano, daughter of his friends Franz and Antonie Brentano, the latter of whom is likely the 'Immortal Beloved' of his 1812 love letter.
