Piano Sonata No. 31

Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas were written over a period of three years, from 1820–22.  He was by this time 50 years old, almost completely deaf, and suffering from a myriad of other illnesses, but his interior musical world enabled him to imagine a wealth of new sounds, figuration patterns, and formal possibilities to construct an ethereal new aesthetic sensibility. The Piano Sonata No. 31 was the second of the trio and was completed in 1821.

The first movement is marked con amabilità, followed by the German term sanft. Taken together, they imply a mood of gentle, friendly calm, and that certainly describes the character of this rhapsodic movement. The simple opening theme, around which the movement is built, later reappears as a fugue subject in the finale.

A very short scherzo movement incorporates melodic ideas from two whimsical popular songs. The mood is jovial and carefree, and the movement provides a brief, light-hearted interlude before the profundity of the finale.

The finale opens with a long, speechlike recitative passage that leads directly into an extended, lamenting arioso section marked dolente (grieving). The fugue that follows brightens the mood considerably but then breaks off with a loud trill and a slip from E-flat major to G minor. The mood becomes ever more affirming, and towards the end, the fugue subject returns, hammered out in affirmative chords over rapid left-hand figuration. The French composer Vincent d’Indy described the ending as “an exertion of will to banish suffering.” Coming as it did at a time when its composer was suffering both physically and emotionally, this sonata serves as a powerful musical testament to both Beethoven’s travails and his unquenchable spirit.

— Michael Strasser