ABSTRACT
The way in which Beethoven managed to retain the preliminary ideas while completely transforming the surrounding material is an illustration of his extraordinary ability at turning base metal into gold. Beethoven's experience with new, large-scale works, especially the Eroica but also Christus and the 'Kreutzer' Sonata, had enabled him to begin operating on a much broader canvas, which could now be applied to the next piano sonata and tried out on his new Erard. It is in this so-called 'Waldstein' Sonata, far more than in Op. 31 of the previous year, that he conspicuously set out on a new path, opening up what is generally regarded as his middle period of sonata composition. The sketches for the 'Appassionata' in Mendelssohn 15 have been published in facsimile and transcription by Martha Frohlich, but what may be the earliest sketches of all appear on a loose leaf not generally associated with the sonata.
