Beethoven Question

[jochanaan]

He does this sort of thing in other pieces?

Yes.  Remember, the first movement of Opus 27 #2 is pretty much all arpeggios; very little actually "happens" except some of the most entrancing music ever written. And again, the slight irregularities save it from crossing the line from "hypnotic" to "boring."

[zamyrabyrd]

It's also a historical development in the history of the piano.  You'll notice how the cadenza at the beginning of the first movement goes up and down all the octaves of the piano.  This was designed to show off the then new pianos with a much larger range than their immediate predecessors.

To show off the range of the new pianos, yes, there may just be something to that. Vocal or violin cadenzas  daringly challenge the upper limits. But there is no real effort in piano to play high or low notes as opposed to other instruments. That is the difference.

Interesting to read comments by sfz as well about the cadenza being a second development. There is a cadenza towards the end of the PC1 of Brahms that follows the first pattern of extending the 6/4 chord of the orchestra. As the figurations continue, the Bb changes unobtrusively to B, the harmonic thread taken up by the orchestra, a very interesting transition to the final triumphant D major.

ZB