4th Sonata, Opus 7, in E flat.
Allegro molto e con brio—Largo con gran espressione—Allegretto Minore—Rondo.
This Sonata which appeared for the first time on October 7, 1797, is dedicated to the Countess Babette von Keglevics. The composer, at the age of twenty-seven was rapidly winning his spurs, but still wrote on the old lines and with the customary four movements. His Minuet however has now become a lively movement and lost all traces of its origin in the stately dance. It is quite likely, however, that the Minuets of Haydn and Mozart were also taken at a lively rate, incompatible with the dance.
The first movement in regular "Sonata Form" is in six-eight time, in happy mood. The joyous rhythm is occasionally emphasised by sforzando syncopations. The subjects are all very taking, and there are some striking modulations in the development.
The Largo is full of religious calm. There is a striking interrupted cadence at bar 19, and one of those majestic march-like movements for the second subject, which on its return at the end, appears as a tenor melody. The movement is full of rich colouring. The tones of the flutes and other wood-wind instruments, may be imitated in parts also the song of birds.
The first part of the Allegro, which takes the place of the Minuet movement, is much more extended than usual. In place of the Trio, we have a movement in the tonic minor of low broken chords, full of that brooding sadness to which Schumann and Brahms in later days became so prone. This is linked up, however, to the return of the first joyous theme to which it forms an effective foil. The final Rondo in E flat is real Mozart, and Mozart at his best. Play the first subject through, sixteen bars in length. Still the bridge passage which follows is real Beethoven. He seems fairly obsessed with his little figure, unable to let it alone, repeating it no less than thirteen times in succession. There is a virile second subject. The middle episode is stormy and difficult to play unless one divines intuitively the right action. There is a remarkable enharmonic change on the last page but one, where the tonality is moved up a semitone from B flat to B natural (a device of which the composer is fond), returning seven bars later on by the chameleon-like "diminished seventh" chord. Reference is made in the Coda to the rhythm of the stormy middle episode which is here turned to good use in the brilliant peroration.