Page:Rolland - Beethoven, tr. Hull, 1927.pdf/168

136 episode in flats near the end, but the music closes with an epilogue full of tender feeling.

We find a right boisterous joy in the Scherzo, which is evolved from one single little figure. The sequence of dominant seventh chords in the bridge, however, was already somewhat hackneyed even at that time.

The final Rondo is a graceful movement which owes much to Mozart. An episode leads to the second subject in E major, and this in its turn to the re-appearance of the first subject in varied form. Then comes a stormy episode in the minor which gradually subsides into the return of the first subject, then of the second subject, and finally winds up with a long coda containing reminiscences of all the subjects.

This, the third of the set of the three early Sonatas dedicated to Haydn, appeared for the first time on March 9th, 1796, when Beethoven was twenty-six years of age. Eugen d'Albert regards this Sonata as essentially a virtuoso piece. This is saying rather much, although he is right in warning the interpreter against any attempts to render it mysterious by hyper critical subtleties.

The first subject of the opening movement is a