Finally Finale, Finely: The Recycled Presto in Beethoven's Opus 47

Abstract

The original finale of Beethoven's violin sonata Op. 30, no. 1, wound up as the finale to his Op. 47, written in May 1803 for performance with George Bridgetower. Examining the Presto in its original context reveals numerous connections with the first two movements of Op. 30, no. 1. Taking the finale off the shelf one year later, Beethoven had to make two new movements that would seem to “grow toward” music already composed. These movements bear the imprint of their ready-made finale. To unpack the resultant “layering of reversals” entails remembering that what is staged in the finale as a recollection of “issues” in the preceding movements of Op. 47 is actually, given the order of composition, their “cause.” Much was at stake in Beethoven's endeavor, for his current symphonic project was the Eroica, for which the finale was essentially in place, in the guise of the Variations for Piano, Op. 35.