“Das Lebewohl” Sonata #26 is NOT program music?!

[euphony131]

I've always been confounded by the 1st mvt of Sonata #26 over whose opening 3 notes the master wrote Le-be-wohl. Sure, I can see the introduction as somber, sad, about farewell...but then you get a burst of radiant jovial Allegro! C'mon! There is something more going on here.

I don't believe for a second the master wrote the mvt to represent just the one titled emotion. In fact, I wish there was never any "program" -- I would've been less confounded and able to just get lost in the music.

Plus it turns out it's doubtful Beethoven ever "missed" Archduke Rudolph (the dedicatee). They were not really "friends." Here's the article:
https://www.completebeethoven.com/day232.html

It goes on to say:

It makes more sense for the Piano Sonata No. 26 to be interpreted as reflecting Beethoven’s reactions to the war with France: the 1st movement suggesting the “excitement and joy, as well as anxiety and apprehension” of soldiers going off to battle

Finally, I feel so vindicated.

[Peter]

Well I'm not sure it matters too much who or what Beethoven really had in mind because I think the themes of farewell, absence and joyous return can be applied to so many different situations in people's lives and perhaps this wider interpretation was really the intention?

I like the idea of that website with listening suggestions for each day of the year, though they obviously had a leap year in mind for 2020 celebrations. Here is the link for the index page if anyone is interested https://www.completebeethoven.com/index.html

[Listener]

The sadness is in the second movement, once the loved one has gone. Agreed it's unlikely the person was Rudolph. There were lots of people fleeing Vienna when Napoleon attacked - the dedication to Rudolph was just convenient. Opus 81a was written very close to Opus 78, "for Therese" (von Brunswick), so maybe she was on LvB's mind. Or even Franz Oliva, according to this article: https://crumey.co.uk/beethoven.html#beloved But yes, we shouldn't be too programmatic about the sonata, or anything else by Beethoven.

[Peter]

The sadness is in the second movement, once the loved one has gone. Agreed it's unlikely the person was Rudolph. There were lots of people fleeing Vienna when Napoleon attacked - the dedication to Rudolph was just convenient. Opus 81a was written very close to Opus 78, "for Therese" (von Brunswick), so maybe she was on LvB's mind. Or even Franz Oliva, according to this article: https://crumey.co.uk/beethoven.html#beloved But yes, we shouldn't be too programmatic about the sonata, or anything else by Beethoven.

Thank you for that Listener and welcome to the forum. Indeed we only have to look at the 2nd symphony, one of the sunniest of Beethoven works and remember that it coincides with the Heiligenstadt testament to recognise that Beethoven's creative mind seems to be independent of circumstances, unlike later composers such as Tchaikovsky (the 4th symphony comes especially to mind).