Review Summary: In Op. 90, Beethoven straddles the best of both his “Heroic” and “Late” worlds, and the result is a unique, even for Beethoven, work of exceptional originality and poeticism.
Traditionally, Beethoven scholars only score the piano sonatas after Op. 90 as in step with Beethoven’s “Late” style. Although the nature of Nos. 28-32 certainly have more in common with each other than they do with Nos. 1-27, the black ink of Op. 90 straddles more of the worlds of the later sonatas than the worlds of the “Early” and “Heroic” sonatas.
One of the aspects of Op. 90 that keeps scholars from including it amongst Nos. 28-32 is, assuredly, its length. Composed of only two movements, Op. 90 typically takes around fourteen minutes to play. The third movement of the monumental “Hammerklavier” Sonata No. 29, Op. 106, on the other hand, can take nearly twenty minutes to perform. Length in it of itself, however, or lack thereof, is inadequate to understand Beethoven’s “Late” style; the Allegro of the Op. 126 Bagatelles takes less than two minutes to perform. Indeed, the entirety of Op. 126 is roughly the same size as the sonata at hand.
The music that Beethoven wrote at the end of his life, though, does feature distinctive qualities, hence the emergence of divisions in Beethoven’s music by scholars in the first place. Regarding the instrument itself, in the “Late” style Beethoven utilizes the extreme registers of the keyboard outside the scope of traditional harmonic or contrapuntal part writing. Typically, as the contour of a line rises so does its tension, tension which is then released as the line settles back down. The effect to utilize is one of unison. To affect the most tension, the right and left hands should rise together. To affect the most release, the right and left hands should fall together. Cursory and easily broken without running the effect a rule as this is, Beethoven had mastered the art of unison-tension-and-release by the time of his first publications in the 1790s.
It should not take us by surprise, then, that as Beethoven withdrew further and further into himself in his late 30s and 40s, the emotional and psychological makeup of his compositions underwent a change. Almost right from the get-go, we see in Op. 90 a compositional approach that eschews unison theory. Measures 15-22, for example, feature discontinuities of register that do not correspond with cadence or phrase. The final beat of measure 15 sounds the motivic material of theme one all the way at E6, (two Es above middle C.) Within the same phrase, in measure 22 sounds a B2, (two Bs below middle C.) The resulting effect is one of weightlessness. Although the melody rises and falls we are left without tension and release. Like much of Beethoven’s “Late” work, the music transcends this simple duality.
Another hallmark of Beethoven’s “Late” style is his abrupt use of texture, the use of which also does not correspond with cadence or phrase. There is evidence of this in Op. 90. The final beat of measure 112 abruptly breaks off from motivic material grounded in a descending quarter-note line right before the resolution of dominant-tonic action in F major a full beat too early. In other words, Beethoven introduces a brand-new texture, florid right-hand 16th note arpeggios, before the ear can appreciate its entrance. This technique, full of romantic yearning, gives off an impression of improvisation, another “Late” period hallmark.
Perhaps the only authentic qualm scholars have with including this sonata among Beethoven’s “Late” period sonatas is its character. The character of the “Late” sonatas, and indeed much of Beethoven’s “Late” music in general, dwells amongst the stars. They are extra-orbital, rather than terrestrial. They seek to turn one’s mind from the red-blooded thoughts, behaviors, and emotions of one’s earthly experiences to what is more ethereal, philosophical, and transcendent. Missing is a certain robustness present in, say, the 3rd, 5th and 7th symphonies, or in the “Waldstein” and “Appassionata” sonatas.
The character of Op. 90, however, speaks to earthly experiences. Pianist and scholar Charles Rosen described the first movement of the E minor as “despairing and impassioned, laconic almost to the point of reticence.” Beethoven positively affects a loneliness and longing. The cadences in measures 15 and 22, gestures repeated throughout the movement, are haunting, as is the second theme, a syncopated descending right-hand line above diminished and minor 16th note left-hand arpeggios. Following the second theme is the most virile passage in the whole sonata. Measures 66 and 71 both feature a rising diatonic four note fortissimo 8th note run in the dominate landing on a sforzando F# doubled with an octave. The potency of these notes is as head-banging, if you will, as any heavy metal fan could hope for. They erupt the quivering atmosphere of the second theme at precisely the right moment to maximum effect, and right before a sudden disappearance back into silence.
The second movement is perhaps Beethoven’s longest singing melody in his corpus. Given over to Beethoven’s musings over “absolute melody”, the entire movement not only preferences the floating right-hand melody, but features it from start to finish without textural interruption. Again, the character of the second movement evokes anthropomorphic, rather than heavenly, emotions. “Devoted to the utmost luxuriance of lyric melodies”, as Tovey put it, the melody soars amongst the clouds and embodies the spirit of nature’s serenity.
The less cerebrally inclined of us, this includes me, will enjoy Beethoven’s 27th more than his final five piano sonatas. In Op. 90, Beethoven straddles the best of both his “Heroic” and “Late” worlds, and the result is a unique, even for Beethoven, work of exceptional originality and poeticism.
