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Murray Perahia

Allegro vivace
Largo appassionata
Scherzo: Allegretto
Rondo: Grazioso

Beethoven's first three piano sonatas were dedicated to the figure who had inspired him to move from his home town of Bonn to Vienna, Joseph Haydn. No. 2 is notable for the way we see Beethoven already treating his musical material as motifs more than themes: the first movement opens with a succession of these ideas, a mixture of arpeggio and scalic figures. The slow movement is an expressive Largo in which the piano etches out an accompaniment like a pizzicato double bass. The playful scherzo has a more lyrical trio at its heart, while the finale is a wide-ranging rondo, marked "grazioso" (graceful), but finding room for more rhythmic energy in the central episodes.

Matthew Rye

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