Beethoven: Sonata No. 26, Op. 81a (“Les Adieux“) | Boris Giltburg | Beethoven 32 project

Sonata No. 26 is the only programmatic one of the entire cycle. It was created during the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809, in which the Austrian Empire and its allies (Britain, Portugal and Spain) fought the French Empire under Napoleon and its German allies, chiefly Bavaria. It depicts the departure, absence and return of Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven’s longtime patron and student, who together with much of the Viennese aristocracy fled Vienna at the approach of Napoleon in May 1809. Beethoven may have begun the sonata before that (it might even not have been planned with Rudolph in mind, but rather meant to depict a more universal emotion), but it was definitely completed during Rudolph’s absence, and presented to him as a gift upon his return to Vienna in early 1810. The first movement (00:10) is centered around a motif of three descending notes, above which Beethoven wrote in the score ‘Le-be wohl’ (‘fare thee well’). This motif is also the upper line of a perennial horn call, built from a sequenc