I’m currently studying the Beethoven op. 90 sonate but I can't work out a satisfying fingering for the 2nd movement bar 230 to 234 Left hand. I won’t see my teacher this week so I hope someone here has a clever suggestion . Thanks in advance!

My copy of this has fingerings written in. I'll try and put it as clearly as i can.

Bar 230, beat 1, E with 3rd finger, Gsharp with thumb, and change it immediately to 2nd finger: then thumb on B, 2nd finger on A and change it immediately to thumb.

Bar 231 - if you've done bar 230 as above then this bar should follow easily.

Bar 232 - first chord with left hand, then the Csharp with the right hand, then octave Bs top one with thumb, bottom one with 4th finger, then lower A with 5th and the Fsharp with 2nd finger

Bar 233 - thumb on top Gsharp. 4th finger on lower Gsharp.

Hope you can follow all that - it looks logical on the copy, but not easy to follow when written out. If you can't follow what I've written let me know and I'll scan it and try and send you the relevant bit.

Thanks for writing that out jm-hamilton, that fingering works quite well ! I would never have figured that out by myself though .

May I ask if it is fun to play this piece? Op.90 is the one in E minor, right? What is the grade of the 2nd mvt? Diploma?

Hi Duan Yue,

It is indeed the e minor one. I really love this piece, and it is really rewarding to practice it. It has a few nasty spots but nothing really scary . The first movement is rather dark, while the second movement is very sweet (most of the second movement is in e major). Only thing that I find annoying about the second movement is that there is a lot of repetition of the theme. I'm not really familiar with the grade thing but I believe that the complete sonate is on the dipABRSM List.

This is a really great piece.....which of Beethoven's Sonatas isn't?!

I think the worst part in my experience from a technical perspective is the left hand passage that is encountered twice where tenths have to played at a quick tempo. I'm not sure I've described that very well!

It's a Grade eight exam piece and I can't help thinking that maybe it's a little difficult for a Grade eight.

I have played this for years. Not difficult really apart from the tenths in the first movement, as has been pointed out. If you really cant manage them its easy to cheat and play them more like octaves.
I do feel the second movement feels a bit overly long though, but it is only a two movement sonata.
Second movement should be playable by a grade 8 student.