Beethoven’s Adagio Cantabile, the second movement of his Piano Sonata in C minor Op. 13, arranged by Christopher Field for double bass.

Ludvig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was the important link between the late Classical period and the beginning of the Romantic age. He composed in almost every genre, creating a body of orchestral, vocal and instrumental music which is still at the very heart of the repertoire into the 21st-century. He was happy to ‘tear-up’ the rule book of his time, creating one masterpiece after another.

Beethoven’s music has been transcribed for many instruments and ‘Beethoven 250’ in 2020, the 250th anniversary of his birth in 1770, has seen a resurgence of interest in the many double bass transcriptions of his work.

Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor (Op.13) was composed in 1798, when the composer was 27 years old, and was published the following year. It is one of Beethoven’s most celebrated and popular works and is dedicated to his friend Prince Karl von Lichnowsky. It was named Grande sonate pathétique (to Beethoven’s liking) by the original publisher, who was impressed by the sonata’s tragic sonorities and solemnity.

The second movement (Adagio Cantabile) has been transposed a semitone lower in this transcription, with a most beautiful and evocative theme which is repeated three times, and has echoes of an episode in Mozart’s Piano Sonata No.14 K.457. It emphasises the lyrical and cantabile range of the double bass across much of its range, with a beautifully supportive piano accompaniment. A more dramatic middle section contrasts the slower opening and closing music, ending slowly and with a gentle finality in the lower range of the double bass.