♫ Welcome, Courserians, to the FINAL set of lectures of Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas! I honestly can't believe that we’ve arrived at this point, and I'm so thrilled that you are still here, with me, delving into this music. So, in honor of this being the last set of lectures, I’m going to break all of my rules today. This lecture will encompass not one, not two, not three, but 4 sonatas: the two Sonatas Op. 49, and the two sonatas Op. 14. The whole point of this course, really, has been to emphasize the originality of each of the 32 sonatas – to showcase Beethoven’s endless, restless invention, and his willingness – or even need – to reinvent the form time and again. But these sonatas really are the exception that prove that rule: they are quite simply not ambitious. The op. 49s, which are only two movements each and take well under ten minutes to play, are clearly written as teaching pieces – well, teaching and also sources of income. And while the op. 14s are far beyond them in terms of imagination, character, and individuality, they too are dwarfed by all of the other early period sonatas. Of the 32 sonatas, the only other one that is arguably not beyond the op. 49s in scope and ambition is op. 79. ♫ But opus 79, modest as it is, is distinguished by a number of formal oddities – a first movement that is way longer than the other two, with two repeats, and some harmonic quirks, a barcarolle as a second moment – whereas the op. 14s, for the most part, play by established rules. The two op. 14 sonatas are far more substantial than the op. 49s – if I didn’t play the complete sonatas I would still play them, which I’m not sure I could say about the opus 49s. But in spite of that, they have a modesty which makes them definite outliers among Beethoven’s published works.