Piano Sonata No. 31 (Beethoven)

“The real heart of this Sonata is its finale. It opens with a recitative, full of changes of tempo and figuration, before the Adagio proper gets under way - a klagender Gesang (tearful song) over incessant semiquaver chords. This leads straight into a three-voice Allegro fugue, and the genius of Beethoven's scheme becomes clear when the fugue subject recalls the outline of the opening melody of the first movement - a subtle association by suggestion rather than outright imitation.”

“The most obvious example is Op. 110, which has a kind of narrative progression, from the relative calm and serenity of the opening movement, to the brusque and almost savage second movement, which seems to take place in a tavern. Part 3, with its aria and fugue, certainly gives a feeling of transformation — from suffering to a kind of exultation at the end.”