Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven's composition of sonatas for cello and piano was unprecedented; he had no models in the works of Haydn or Mozart. Only recently had the instrument begun to liberate itself from its role in the traditional basso continuo. Also, Beethoven was the first to completely write out the keyboard parts for large-scale cello and keyboard works.

Large temporal gaps appear in Beethoven's composition of sonatas for cello and piano. The first two, Opus 5, were composed in 1796, while Beethoven was in Berlin. He would not embark on another such project until 1807, when he composed the Sonata, Op. 69. Eight years later he would return to the idiom to write a pair of sonatas that appeared as Opus 102.

Published in March 1817 by Simrock in Bonn, the Sonatas for Cello and Piano, Op. 102, were dedicated to the Countess Marie von Erdödy (1779-1837), although only in a later, Vienna publication. The Countess had been friends with the composer since about 1803. Beethoven actually lived with her and her husband, Count Peter Erdödy, for a time in 1808. The Countess, who after leaving Vienna in 1815 continued to correspond with Beethoven, also received the dedication of the Trios, Op. 70. During the last year of the Erdödys' residence in Vienna, they spent the summer at Jedlersee with Beethoven. Because Count Razumovsky's palace had burned down earlier in the year, his resident cellist, Joseph Linke, also spent the summer at Jedlersee with the Erdödy family. Beethoven's close contact with the cellist provided the inspiration for the composition of the Opus 102 cello sonatas.

The sonatas of Opus 102 developed during the period of Beethoven's withdrawal from society, perhaps explaining the intimacy of the works. His self-imposed distance from his fellow Viennese was probably in large part due to an increasing deterioration in his hearing -- the Conversation Books date from 1818 onward. The overall construction of each of the sonatas reveals Beethoven's continuing quest to create a fluid, "total sonata" that was more than a sum of its movements.

In his autograph score, Beethoven referred to Opus 102/2 as a "free" sonata. It is easy to understand why Beethoven used such a term. The work is in two fast movements, each with a slow, introductory segment. As in the "Waldstein" Piano Sonata, Op. 53, the slow introduction to the finale acts somewhat like an intermezzo, replacing a proper slow movement. A reminiscence of the slow introduction to the first movement before the finale also occurs, as also occurs in the Piano Sonata No. 28, Op. 101. Although Opus 102/2 ends in C major, the first movement is in A minor, the relative minor of C major. In an unusual move, Beethoven moves from the tonic in the first-movement slow introduction to the relative minor for the remainder of the movement, effectively creating a huge deceptive cadence that dominates the proceedings until the finale. Beethoven used similar plans in his Piano Quartets, WoO. 36, of 1785.

-- AllMusic.com