Page:Rolland - Beethoven, tr. Hull, 1927.pdf/187

 throughout the first movement and the immense vitality of the Finale, the calm beauty of the Andante with its variations, it holds the palm amongst all sonatas written for the clavier. Hackneyed it certainly is, but even through the indifferent temperaments of mere finger players, the immense force of the ideas easily penetrates.

It is a superb example of the growth of Beethoven's immense creations from two of the tiniest of germs (a) the first three opening notes—C. A flat, F—(b) the C, D, C in the third and fourth bars. The whole sonata grows as naturally from these as the huge oak from the acorn. Bridge subjects, second subjects, coda figures, the chief theme of the Andante, as also the impetuoso subject of the Finale, are all derived from these two little germs. Lenz calls the Sonata "a volcanic eruption, which rends the earth and shuts out the sky with a shower of projectiles." The first movement and the last movement have truly immense codas.

For a clue to this sonata, Beethoven told an enquirer to read Shakespeare's Tempest.

This Sonata was composed in October, 1809 (considerably later than L'Adieux Sonata, which was published in July, 1811) and appeared