(MUSIC) Once we arrive at the recapitulation, it functions surprisingly normally – surprising, given how strange and twisting this movement’s path generally is. One quirk is the second theme: (MUSIC). It comes back not in the tonic, (MUSIC), but in the subdominant of F minor (MUSIC). The second theme in the recap is normally a pivotal moment, because it’s the first instance of material that had been OUT of the home key coming back IN the home key; in a minor key sonata, it’s also usually the moment where what was in the major mode the first time around is shifted into minor – a shift that tends to suggest resignation. But in this case, the material was already in the minor mode the first time around (MUSIC), and it’s not in the tonic this time either: (MUSIC) as opposed to (MUSIC). So in no way does it fill the traditional second-theme role. When the third theme comes, we have finally reached our C minor home – some home! – and with it, Beethoven really brings the hammer down, establishing the key with a brutal certainty. (MUSIC) A conclusion seems imminent, at this point, but instead: (MUSIC). Another interruption. Another intrusion of the opening. This time it is literally unprecedented – that Mozart Quintet had one reappearance of the opening material, but two had simply never been done. Until the end, Beethoven keeps us guessing, about what will come next, and about what role this grave really plays in the piece. As it always is with him, this is a case of a formal invention helping to establish the emotional world of the piece, in this case, mysterious, turbulent, and filled with anxious dread. When this third iteration of the opening comes, he replaces what had been sforzando accents at the beginnings of the phrases (MUSIC), with rests (MUSIC). These silences really ratchet up the misterioso character of the music, which was pretty significant to begin with. The third of these phrases – once again, substantially longer than the first two – brings us back to the allegro, and a brook-no-arguments conclusion. (MUSIC) Altogether, it’s one of the most wild, unpredictable documents of Beehoven’s early period. And unlike that Mozart Quintet I mentioned, the Pathetique is not a one-off. Rather, it’s a turning point, the moment at which the lines between the introduction and the sonata form proper begin to blur. Just a few years later, in the so-called “Tempest” sonata, Beethoven begins with, well, not an “introduction”, not even a proper motive, but a very slow arpeggio, which comes back again and again, expanding each time, and becoming increasingly incorporated into the structure, increasingly invasive. And then in the Lebewohl sonata of 1809, the slow introduction never returns per se, but its material permeates the entire allegro. And by the time the romantic generation comes along, the distinctions have nearly disappeared. Chopin’s second sonata begins with a brief “Grave” passage which seems intended to be a part of the repeated exposition, despite being in the wrong key and having little motivic connection to the rest of the movement. And Schumann’s F-sharp minor sonata has a slow introduction which reappears not only in the first movement’s development, but in the second movement as well. In these works, the formal rigor that is so essential in Mozart and Beethoven has all but vanished. When Beethoven played with the rules in the Pathetique, it was a psychological gambit, employed to rattle the listener through upsetting his or her expectations. But eventually he pushed that game so far, by the time the next generation of composers came along, those expectations didn’t really exist any more, certainly not in the same way. As I’ve said before: Beethoven’s incredible ingenuity with sonata form ultimately destroyed it. With the first movement of the Pathetique, we see that process begin to unfold.
