So, the word "oasis" implies being surrounded on all sides by strife, and that is certainly the case with the slow movement. The first movement of op. 10 no. 1 was constantly pushing forward, and that is equally true of the last. The marking of this movement is even faster, in fact: prestissimo, the fastest tempo indication there is in the Italian language, at least until the 20th century, when composers starting using terms like "prestissimo possibile". I might be missing something, but the only other instance I can think of in which Beethoven uses "prestissimo" in a piano sonata is the second movement op. 109, some 25 years later. So: this is exceptional. This movement is a sonata form – a real one, unlike the slow movement. Since, again, it’s so very compact, I’ll just go ahead and play the entire exposition. (MUSIC) It’s not just fast: it’s terse. In discussing this sonata, I just can’t get away from that word. The terseness is really underscored here by those six note cells that open the movement, and which dominate it. (MUSIC) The fact that those cells are incomplete – they are not whole phrases – means that the rests that separate them from one another are filled with tension. This is not similar to the Pathetique, where the last movement is less tightly wound and more ambivalent than the first. Here, even though the movement begins in a whisper, the intensity is not a bit lower than it was in the first movement. The opening phrase is a classic "short, short long" construction. (MUSIC) The second phrase – a response to the first one-- is the same, except that the"long" part of the "short, short long" is not just long-er, but immensely long: once the piece gets over its fits and starts opening, its momentum is unstoppable. (MUSIC) Immediately following that crash landing, we move to the second theme. This juncture of the piece has always made me smile, because Beethoven makes no pretense of a transition, much less a modulation. As a point of reference, here is the end of the first theme of the first movement, and then the bridge leading to the second. (MUSIC) And now, the end of the first theme area of the last movement, followed by the second theme. (MUSIC) No bridge, no modulation, no monkeying around. It’s the perfect metaphor for the whole piece, in that it is too much in a hurry to bother with niceties. We know where we are supposed to be going, so why make a fuss about getting there. It’s typical of Beethoven that even in a movement like this, when he's being awfully hot-headed, there are still flashes of humor. Humor is in the DNA of nearly all of Beethoven's music.