Beethoven: Sonata No. 24 in F sharp major, Op. 78 | Boris Giltburg | Beethoven 32 project

The darkness which held us in its grip in the Appassionata could not be counteracted more completely than it is by the sound of Sonata No. 24’s opening. Like a hymn rising above the deep octaves in the left hand, these four bars seem to come directly from the heart, devout and almost in awe of being in the presence of something exceedingly pure and beautiful. They lead into the loveliest of first movements, poetic, lyrical and simple in its emotional colour. The key of F sharp major, unique in Beethoven’s output, lends the music a special luminosity, a constant sense of striving upwards, which is reflected by the music’s frequently residing in the upper part of the keyboard. This is not a detached, crystalline weightlessness, though, as the music is suffused with warmth throughout. The second (and last) movement is an irreverently playful kind of rondo, beginning strikingly on a dissonant chord. The short refrain is built from a series of bouncy phrases, surrounding longer episodes of merriment in whi