Piano Sonata No.21, Op.53 (Waldstein)

Sonata · in C major · Op. 53

Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827

C major

Key

Sonata

Form

Allegro con brio

Tempo

Op. 53

Catalogue

Score

First page of Piano Sonata No.21, Op.53 (Waldstein)

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Themes & character

Heroic drive·Virtuosic scope·Radiant finale·Middle-period ambition

At a glance

Catalogue: Op. 53
Key: C major
Tempo / character: Allegro con brio
Form: Sonata

Movements

Allegro con brioC major

Quiet, repeated chords build enormous momentum before the music bursts open; a singing second theme arrives in the distant key of E major.

Introduzione: Adagio moltoF major

A short, harmonically restless introduction stands in for a full slow movement, leading without pause into the finale.

III

Rondo: Allegretto moderato, PrestissimoC major

A luminous rondo on a long, singing theme, famous for its extended trills and glittering pianissimo runs near the close.

About the piece

Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, composed in 1804 and dedicated to Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, an early patron who helped send the young Beethoven to Vienna and once told him he would "receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands." It stands with the Appassionata as a summit of his middle period. Beethoven originally wrote a much longer Andante for the middle movement, but friends convinced him the sonata ran too long, so he set it aside as a separate piece, later published as the Andante favori, and replaced it with the brief, brooding Introduzione heard today. The first movement drives forward on quiet, repeated chords, and the piece opens out into a rondo finale that is one of the great technical undertakings of the piano repertoire.

The composer

Ludwig van Beethoven

1770–1827

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer, conductor, and pianist. Regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, he was mentored during the Classical period, and his musical style was a key driver of the transition to Romantic music, and the expansion of instrumental forms such as the symphony, the piano sonata and the string quartet. His compositions have attracted extraordinary casual and scholarly interest, and remain among the most performed in the world.

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