Piano Sonata No. 16 (Beethoven) - Structure

Structure

The sonata consists of three movements. A typical performance lasts about 20 minutes.

1. Allegro vivace
2. Adagio grazioso
3. Rondo, allegretto - presto

The first movement, Allegro vivace, begins in a great animated fashion. Almost comical, the main theme is littered with brisk, semiquaver passages, and chords written in a stuttering fashion, suggesting that the hands are unable to play in unison with one another. Episodes suggest a more sensitive or romantic feeling, but overall, the piece is light, elegant and entertaining. The beginning of the piece is reminiscent of the Courante from J. S. Bach's French Suite No. 5, which is in the same key.

Rather unorthodoxly, the second subject in the exposition is in B major and minor (alternating between major and minor). This is one of the earlier manifestations of Beethoven's tendency, especially later in his career, to place the second subject of a major-key work in more remote keys, usually the mediant major or minor, for instance, (Symphony no. 7 in A major, op. 92 (movement 4); Sonata no. 21 in C major, op. 53 ("Waldstein") or submediant major (Piano Trio No. 7 in B-flat major, op. 97 ("Archduke"); Piano Sonata no. 29 in B-flat major, op. 106 ("Hammerklavier").

With long, drawn out trills and reflective pauses, the Adagio grazioso in C Major is the more sentimental movement. The heavy ornamentation almost suggests a grotesque parody, but the several graceful melodies in the piece save it from merely being a joke. The movement is full of quick, shimmering right hand passages that should be played as quick as possible, with a fairy-like glitter. Apart from the Hammerklavier sonata's adagio and the 32nd sonata's second movement, this is the longest slow movement of Beethoven in the piano sonatas (ca. 11 minutes). According to many great pianists (e.g. Edwin Fischer and András Schiff), this movement is a parody of Italian opera and Beethoven's contemporaries, who were much more popular than Beethoven at the beginning of the 19th century. Schiff explained this theory in his masterclass of this sonata; he said it's totally uncharacteristic of Beethoven because it is not economical, it's incredibly long, everything is too much ornamented, it's filled with "show-off cadenzas (...) who are trying to make a cheap effect" and bel canto like elements and rhythms (on them Schiff said "it's very beautiful, but it's alien to Beethoven's nature"). But there are also "very profound moments, because Beethoven cannot really jump out of his own skin".

The Rondo is similar in character to the first movement: light, enthusiastic, and youthful. This rondo is considered by critics to be one of the finest rondos to be written by Beethoven. Here, a single simple theme is varied, ornamented, syncopated, modulated throughout the piece. But Beethoven's creativity never makes us bore of it. All the ideas are fresh, inviting, and intriguing, a delectable piece. Beethoven eventually pulls the movement into a brief adagio, but when it seems the piece has finished, a presto erupts, bringing this vibrant sonata to an ebullient conclusion.