Piano Sonata No. 20 in G Major

Like its companion work, the Sonata No. 19 in G Minor, Sonata No. 20 was composed by Beethoven in a deliberately simple style suitable for piano pupils and amateur players. The two Op. 49 sonatas appeared in print in 1805; this was several years after they had been written down, probably in 1796, in the same period as the virtuosic and much larger Sonatas Nos. 3 and 4. Although Sonata No. 20 includes some of the easiest music to play that Beethoven ever wrote, it nonetheless also has an engaging individuality that only a major composer can achieve. There are just two short movements, both in the key of G major. As with Sonata No. 19, the first movement’s winsome simplicity and flow suggest Mozart’s keyboard style. The second movement is in the Minuet dance-form, which was then very popular; Beethoven was to reuse its charming main theme two years later, in his Septet Op. 20 for wind instruments and strings.