Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor

Beethoven’s final piano sonata was completed in January 1822, before he turned his creative energies to the late string quartets. The first movement is in C minor, the key of his similarly turbulent Fifth Symphony and “Pathétique” Sonata. The music’s agitated propulsion is driven by dissonant diminished seventh chords, fugue-like textures and bass rumblings, all eased by the musing second theme in A-flat major. The end of the movement softens into a C major haze in preparation for the extraordinary “Arietta”. Like Op. 109, the sonata is weighted heavily toward its finale, in both cases a set of variations on a hymnlike theme where time seems frozen in an aura of transcendence. Unlike Op. 109, there are just two movements, and many have perceived these as embodying a dichotomy of real and mystical worlds or, according to the great pianist Edwin Fischer, here and beyond. The simple theme goes through a series of rhythmic developments, changing character but not (despite the illusion) tempo, including a startling anticipation of boogie-woogie. Culminating (again, as in Op. 109) in a series of trills, the music expanding to both extremes of the piano’s register, the effect is of an ascent to heaven. The publishers asked Beethoven if he had forgotten to include a third movement, and Beethoven’s response—that he didn’t have time to compose one—was presumably intended as a silly answer to a silly question. On the face it may have been reasonable to expect the usual fast-slow-fast pattern for a sonata, but it is hard to imagine what could follow such a profoundly spiritual journey.