Beethoven Sonata Op.13 in C minor Pathetique: ii. Adagio cantabile
The Sonata op. 13 in C minor, composed in 1778 when the composer was 27 years old, is the most successful work from his first composing period.The publisher of the sonata was so impressed by its tragic sonorities that he proposed Beethoven the name Pathetique. Beethoven liked the title “Grande Sonate Pathetique” in the meaning of “pathetique” as the poet Schiller used it from the greek athetikos, “subject to and capable of feeling, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart towards "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life.
It appear to me that Beethoven’s Pathetique may have been inspired by the Bach Partita No. 2 in C Minor BWV 826 as they share the same key and dramatic slow introductory theme, marked Grave. The first and third Movements are dark and violent, surrounding with impressive contrast intimacy of the famous cantabile melody of the Adagio movement. A sort of resigned meditation on the dramatic discovery of his irreversible deteriorating hearing.