Composed 1802; 25 minutes

Beethoven wrote his three Op. 30 sonatas when the piano was getting more brilliant and its hammers and strings more powerful. At the same time, virtuoso violinists were strengthening their fiddles, restringing them and playing with stronger bows. As performers were beginning to play in larger halls, a more robust sound was needed. Op. 30 marks a clear step along the way toward the resonance, heroism, and virtuosity that was to be found most prominently the following year in Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata. 

The second sonata is the most dramatic of the three and one of Beethoven’s finest. Beethoven reserved its key of C minor for some of his most fiery music. The piano first hints at an opening theme with a terse, darkly colored statement, more threat than theme at this stage. It suggests that the music is going to develop on a large scale, carved out of fragments of themes, rather than unfolding out of expansive melodic phrases. When it arrives on the violin, the theme contains much latent power waiting to be unleashed and Beethoven introduces us to its force in a very controlled manner. The slow movement begins as the noblest of Adagios, but its serene course is twice rudely interrupted by ferocious C major scales from the piano and some highly disorienting harmonies. A rustic scherzo, in the major key with some of its seams consciously showing, provides a little humor. Then, Beethoven returns to the minor key for the storm of the finale.