This time the name of the sonata seems to express Beethoven’s own intentions. The sonata was dedicated to “(…) Archduke Rudolph in admiration”. We don’t know who he was, but we’ll google him later.

Anyway, according to Beethoven’s indications, the three parts tell the story of a farewell, of a period of absence and finally of the departed person’s return (Beethoven wrote the word “Lebewohl” (Farewell) over the three chords of the first part). And now, let’s give it a try:

As usual, we want to thank Bunji Hisamori for his kind permission to post the above audio rendering on our blog. The midi file was downloaded from The Classical Music Archives. You can find some technical details and the previous sonatas from this series here.