♫ The second movement of opus 49 no. 1 is also – in my opinion, at least, perhaps not in Beethoven’s! – more distinctive and memorable than its counterpart in this opus, which is courtly, and…not much else. This rondo picks up in the G major where the first movement left off, and it has a playful, scamp-ish energy. ♫ This movement shares the G Major tonality of op. 49 no. 2, but there is a spark here which is largely absent from the other work, and those grace notes and sforzandos ♫ have a sort of “elbows out” quality which is a lot more in keeping with Beethoven’s bold personality. Again, I’m not gonna oversell this – if I had never heard this piece, and you told me that someone else had written it, I would not be incredulous. Still, it is not lacking in character. So this is a slightly oddly shaped rondo, in that there is really only one contrasting section – the “B”, I guess – though it does come twice, in different keys. And before the first of these B sections is a transitional passage which is even more energetic than the opening material – this music is, at last, a bit steely, and thus is probably the passage in either of the op. 49s that most surely suggests Beethoven. ♫ This leads to the b section itself, which is more of a pure contrast to the opening – poised, grazioso, on the reflective side. ♫ The coda of op. 49 no. 1 is again much more substantial than the one in op. 49 no. 2, and more fully reflective of Beethoven’s personality. It begins in definite “elbows out” mode: piano and forte versions of the theme in mock anger at one another. ♫ This dispute, real or trumped-up, is soon ironed out, and the coda closes with a transformation of the theme – it has gone from giocoso to dolce, in really a quite beautiful way. ♫ So really, from beginning to end, op. 49 no. 1 has more of Beethoven’s fingerprints on it than number 2. But while with many of the other early sonatas, I’ve made a point of digging into the details, because they are unique to the sonata at hand, here I just don’t feel that that’s the case. It is clear to me that Beethoven didn’t labor much over these two sonatas, and thus, neither should we.
