Reconstruction of unfinished Beethoven Fantasia Sonata

Based on sketches by Ludwig van Beethoven Unv 12

There are many more unfinished than completed compositions of Beethoven that have been preserved. ln these fragments one sees ideas for individual works. A large number of sketchbooks and sketches from the composer were preserved and are housed in libraries and private collections all over the globe. Some sketches are no more than brief experiments or short elaborated ideas, but there are also fragments preserved that nearly give us a complete picture of a composition. In the so-called Kafka sketchbook, which was published in 1970 in London, approximately 500 fragments of manuscripts were bundled that stem from 1786 – 1799.

The Fantasia Sonata in D major (Unv 12/deest 45/Biamonti 213) for pianoforte in three parts, was hidden in the archives since 1792. This sonata of the young Beethoven, with striking similarities to the Moonlight Sonata and the Pastorale, has never been performed on stage. Young pianotalent Martin Oei played it for the first time in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, October 21st, 2012.

The large, over 1100 bars comprising torso now known as Fantasia Sonata in D major from 1792, cannot be called ‘just a sketch’, it’s way too comprehensive for that. Although Beethoven has not completed the work, he used many ideas in other, later works.

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