Movement 1: Grave – Allegro di molto e con brio Movement 2:
Adagio cantabile Movement 3: Rondo: Allegro The notion of
bringing back the Grave’s material at its original slow tempo at
crucial points during the course of the Allegro was something
new to Beethoven’s style, and it heralds the similarly
integrated use of a slow introduction in the ‘Les Adieux’ Sonata
Op 81a, and in some of the late string quartets. But the
‘Pathétique’ unifies its contrasting strands to an unusual
degree, and the start of the movement’s central development
section presents the introduction’s initial phrase transformed
into the rhythm and tempo of the Allegro. The Allegro begins
with a staccato theme that spirals upwards, above the sound of a
drum roll deep in the bass. In order to maintain the tension
during his contrasting second theme, Beethoven has it given out
not in the major, as would have been the norm, but in the minor;
and the eventual turn to the major coincides with the arrival of
a restless ‘rocking’ figuration, which