# Beethoven's Op. 2 Piano Sonatas



## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

How highly do you rate these 3 sonatas? You can hear the Haydn, Mozart and Clementi influences but I think Beethoven is highly original in all three and writes things that show how far ahead of his time he was. The F minor sonata opens with a Mannheim Rocket yet the A major sonata opens with a Mannheim Rocket in reverse, and it works! The opening to the C major sonatas is perhaps the hardest pianist opening, technique wise, of all 32 sonatas, but the 2nd subject is divine and the 2nd movement is beautiful. And that trio is something else!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

An interesting question! I certainly rate them highly and, despite their obvious influences, hear them clearly as “Beethoven.” But if I were to be introduced to them as works by somebody else, would I say, “No, that’s Beethoven”? Hmmm, not sure about that…


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

They're not as technically challenging or intricate as his middle period sonatas, but I find them quite eloquent.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I've always thought the C major sonata to be one the early gems among his work. Not only is it delightfully tuneful, but its full of all the little tricks and experiments that would preoccupy him for his entire career.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Certainly these are three of the greatest thirty-two piano sonatas ever written. And though I can't rank them, I will insist that they are numbers 1, 2, and 3.
(I do hope you find my post helpful.)


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

The Op2#1 (Sonata #1) Adagio is a (simply) beautiful work and I like the way Barenboim plays it, slowly and solemnly. It was written in 1795, but there are none of the affectations, such as frequent trills, of the period. This was new music!


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

I quite like them, especially Op. 2/3. 2/2 is pretty good although I'm not huge on the second movement. I don't know 2/1 as well (I got to know the Beethoven Sonatas through the Gilels set, and this one isn't included).

I like Op. 7 more than any of them though: wonderful music. I'd say it's fairly close to being among my favourite piano sonatas.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

No.1 of Op. 2 is terrific. But as much as I love Beethoven, I still consider No. 2 and 3 as not particularly distinctive or memorable and a big drop-off from No. 1... I almost never listen to them... They are still decidedly Beethoven in originality, but melodically nothing particularly stands out for me. Perhaps that's why they're not played as much as some of his other more famous sonatas... Nevertheless, No. 1 is remarkable and an auspicious beginning to his sonatas as a whole... But I have to say that I consider the Mozart sonatas more even in quality overall despite some of the outstanding individual Beethoven sonatas that most listeners are familiar with, such as 8, 13, 14, 15, 21, 23, 26, 27, and 29. But that's 9 out of 32. So I consider the quality of the Beethoven sonatas as more uneven than the Mozart overall, sorry, and there's not one Mozart sonatas that I consider not particularly worth hearing. I think it took longer for some of Beethoven's sonatas to gel. But when they did - wow!


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## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

DaveM said:


> The Op2#1 (Sonata #1) Adagio is a (simply) beautiful work and I like the way Barenboim plays it, slowly and solemnly. It was written in 1795, but there are none of the affectations, such as frequent trills, of the period. This was new music!


Agreed--it's a gorgeous movement. It was recycled out of a previous work, the WoO 36 No. 3 piano quartet, that Beethoven wrote a decade earlier, and I think I actually prefer the chamber version to the solo piano version.


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## Eusebius12 (Mar 22, 2010)

To me no.3 is by far the best of the set. It is highly virtuosic, especially the last movement with its fast moving triple chords. Unless you play it as slowly as Barenboim (mind you, he isn't that young anymore). The 1st sonata is prophetic in terms of it's nascent beethovenian drama, but it has it's definite weaknesses. The tum-tum finale has it's drama but also transitions between major and minor episodes without much logic or reason. The early c minor sonata (no.5) is a short little work, but is much more convincing and the drama never loses bite. Both sonatas however have lovely Mozartean slow movements. But no.3 of opus 2 is a real repertoire piece, a proto-Waldstein in my view. I never tire of playing it. The A major does irritate a little, it is one of the most Haydnesque sonatas (although with respect to Haydn it well transcends the idiom of the older composer already. Haydn's piano sonatas reach real peaks, but his piano idiom is always fairly meagre. He is best served in his chamber works and symphonies imo).


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I agree. The third sonata is the beginning of the leonine Beethoven that led to some of the most dramatic piano music ever written. Try Sviatoslav Richter's recording to hear it realized:






CD buyers have many options the best of which is probably this:

https://www.amazon.com/Sviatoslav-R...s=Beethoven+Piano+Sonata+Op.+2+No.+3++Richter


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I remembered all three as outstanding early Beethoven - and I really love early Beethoven! Playing the accounts from the Annie Fischer set has convinced me that my memory was correct.


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