Piano Sonata No. 5 in C Minor

Having established himself as a composer/pianist in Vienna in the mid 1790s, Beethoven’s reputation soon swept all before him. Patrons were eager to commission works that they would have exclusive use of before they came into print, and publishers were equally keen to issue new pieces. In the summer of 1796, Beethoven launched into composing several works, which overlapped as he brought them to fruition, including the Op. 7 Piano Sonata, the Op. 8 Serenade, the Op. 9 string trios and the set of three piano sonatas, Op. 10, which were completed in 1798. The opening work of the Op. 10 triptych is the first of three piano sonatas Beethoven composed in his quintessential key of C minor—the other two are the “Pathétique” and Op. 111. Like the first sonata of the Op. 2 set, this is a compact work with an opening built on an explosive arpeggio figure (there are shades here, too, of Mozart’s C Minor Sonata, K457). Beethoven characteristically offsets sharp-edged angularity with moments of smoother lyrical expression. The glorious slow movement (“Adagio molto”) relies on sustained lines and increasingly florid embellishment, while the finale (Beethoven abandoned his original four-movement plan of including a scherzo) is even more economical than the first movement, concluding with a throwaway coda that, although in C major, comes without any sense of triumphant resolution.