Although it seems surprising that Beethoven agreed to this
compromise the artistic reason for it could have been deeper
than a mere desire to please, or a lack of confidence in his own
judgment. Such indecisions had plagued him before, in the Fifth
and Ninth Symphonies, in Fidelio, or in the appalling cuts and
shifts he suggested in the 'Hammerklavier' Sonata. Publishing
the Grosse Fuge separately as Op 133 may well have been done in
the hope that it would eventually find its way back to its
original place, as it now often does, for it is widely and
rightly felt that the small 'Substitute' finale cannot
counterweigh the great first movement. But if the Grosse Fuge is
restored to Op 130, what are we to do with the other piece? The
idea that two such disparate movements are satisfying
alternatives could be sustained only by ingenuity. Perhaps the
answer lies further back. Listening to the first movement,
notice the mysteriously disembodied effect of the whole second
group in the strange key of G flat, approache