Sonata No. 20 Opus 49 No. 2

The Anacrouse collection offers pianists, beginners and advanced alike, a wide choice of classical works from the Renaissance to the present day. It brings together major works of the repertoire as well as rarer pieces, and also offers transcriptions for piano solo or four hands, selected for their musical and educational interest. Each score, available individually, benefits from careful editorial work: a rigorously established musical text, clear and legible engraving, accompanied by a short biography of the composer and a note on the work.

The “Sonata No. 20 in G major, Opus 49 No. 2” is without doubt one of the pages most often studied by students for its perfect balance. For the pianist, it is an ideal preparation for Beethoven’s great sonatas. The work bears on the precision of the scales and triplets of the first movement (Allegro ma non troppo), as well as on the pearly touch and elegance of the famous second movement, a Tempo di Menuetto. It is a work that demands great clarity of articulation and rigorous handling of dynamic contrasts to underline the classical structure.

Although it bears the number 20, this sonata is an early work, composed around 1796, well before its publication in 1805. Beethoven had originally conceived it for his friends or students, which explains its title “Sonata facile”. Yet it conceals admirable melodic richness: the theme of its minuet was so dear to the composer that he reused it almost identically in his famous Septet Op. 20. It remains the testimony of a serene Beethoven, handling with absolute grace the forms inherited from Haydn and Mozart.