Piano Sonata in B-flat majorOp. 106 · IV

The finale of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 106, the “Hammerklavier”, composed in 1817–18 and published in Vienna by Artaria in 1819. A Largo introduction, partly unbarred, gropes through keys and tempos until the Allegro risoluto breaks into a “Fuga a tre voci, con alcune licenze”. Its trilled subject returns in augmentation, in retrograde and in inversion, and a quiet D-major episode, sempre dolce cantabile, joins it. This edition follows Paul Dukas’s edition for Durand, 1915.