Beethoven: Sonata in C Minor (Uchida)

Yes, okay, this praise is a little hackneyed, and there’s no shortage of wild-eyed gushing over this sonata, but this sonata is not just great but *profound* -- a staunchly (weirdly) unrepresentative apotheosis of the form. I’m not sure this sonata can be properly explained – as Wittgenstein said, mysteries are meant to be deepened, not explained, but I’ll try to point out some interesting features. In general, the sonata is strange because it’s in just two movements: the first a welter of surging darkness, the second sharply contrasting, but otherwise more or less beyond conventional description. No-one’s quite sure if Beethoven really meant to write a 3rd movement, but it’s true in any case that the sonata has a searching, hanging quality despite the straightforward dualism between the two movements (major/minor, fast/slow, harmonic agitation/harmonic stasis, angular/melodic, propulsive/static, terrestrial/divine.) The allegro: - The striking opening, about which probably more than enough has already been