Beethoven's Cello Sonata Op.69

Nevertheless, Czerny probably did not study the work with Beethoven, so may not be a reliable witness to the composer's intentions, and since no mention of the time signature is made in the list of amendments sent by Beethoven to his publisher7 the reason for this discrepancy is unclear. The appearance of 4/4 in the autograph, however, does highlight the importance of the moderate tempo (ma non tanto) to which Czerny referred.
             The implied broadness of the tempo is clearly an issue in du Pré's performance. She undercuts Czerny's metronome mark at the opening of the movement (minim=56) suggesting a time signature of 4/4 which enables her to develop a richer display of tone in the sustained voice than would be possible at Czerny's suggested tempo. .
             Her supporting the slower tempo with a uniformly rich tone demonstrates a historical point: uniformity of tone is an aspect of performance to which 20th century cellists aspired to a greater degree than those in the first half of the 19th century. This change is due to several technical factors. Firstly, the introduction of the endpin to the cello from around 1850 enabled performers to shift into higher positions and exploit the higher register of the instrument, cultivating greater uniformity of tone. Secondly, as John Moran has suggested, unlike their French and English counterparts, Viennese instrument makers of the early 19th century had a greater interest in variety of tone colour than in projection, since most performances were given in relatively small rooms enabling such subtleties to be distinguished.9 Writing in 1799, Piringer stated that "one must know how to divide the bow into weak and strong portions in order, through emphasis and moderation, to present the tones agreeably and movingly." For Beethoven, therefore, the cellist's phrase could be shaped from note to note using fluctuations of tone colour, and Czerny's remark that the sonata must be "distinguished more by beauty of tone and performance, than by excessive rapidity" lends further support to this point.