Ah, duhhh.... that's what happens when I post at 2 in the morning.

I have played it the other way now, and it actually makes quite some sense. You can hold the note down without having to use pedal and muddying it up, and its only in the first exposition (measures 21 - 37). You can see the long notes extended with slurs, and its only possible to play that without crossing hands. But the rest of the piece you do cross hands, but you can see that it is written on the second stave then, so again makes perfect sense. This thread has been an enormous help! It also seems more logical now that he uses the b note twice after eachother in measures 31-32 and so on, instead of a continues stream of 3thds. When the other hand picks over it repeats the last note. Beethoven is fascinating.

Just a comment here...I'm not one of great technical prowess and yet I had no trouble switching hands on the triplets. I recall starting out trying to use the pedal, but as you say, it turned to mud, and my teacher suggested switching hands. I do not "blip" at this, and so it is not a difficult thing to do. I play the whole note with my LH while the RH continues the triplets for the first beat, then the LH takes them over on beat 2. I don't try to switch immediately at the bar line. I think this makes for a smoother transition, and as I said, it was not that hard to work it up to speed after enough slow practice. I think anyone who is ready to attempt this piece would be capable of this.

Yes, that is a whole different issue at this point, where you have the repeated notes across the bar lines. It is odd that m. 30 he does not have those repeated notes, but m. 31 and on with the same figures transposed up a step he does repeat the notes. However, at this point we do not have tied whole note sin the base and so I do cross over hands here. I change the fingering on the triplets from 5-2 to 1-4 to aid in the repeated note, and the pedaling is not much of an issue due to no longer needing to play a p melody right after while holding down the tied whole notes.

It's odd, though, because when you bring it up to speed, I don't think you can really hear that repeated note. I wonder now if that was an editorial error in m. 30 or if that was intentional to not repeat the notes, and what purpose it served if it were intentional by Beethoven.

The other point to consider is that if the B were not repeated in measure 32 (and the C in measure 34, etc., etc.) and if the triplet were to continue in alternating notes, then on the third beat of each measure you would have an open octave sounding with the upper note in the upper stave. Could it be that Beethoven made this change at this point to avoid the open octave?

Regards,

Ah, good point! I see in m. 29 that he doesn't begin with the alternating 4th, but a descending 5th which does not happen in m. 31, thus the triplet pattern is not the same and thus not in danger of the open octave on beat 3 in m. 30, whereas it is as you say in m. 32 a possibility if the pattern is not reversed in the previous measure.

Thanks for pointing that out! Although I do wonder how audible that open octave would be up to tempo, it is a valid point.

Audible or not, I guess he just wanted to get it right . @ Morodiene, from that measure on there is indeed not the tied note, however it is a whole note, and must be held down the whole measure. Something I can only do by switching hands for the triplets. So I switch hands now in measures 21-37 and cross-over in the rest of the sonata (no not the whole sonata haha, would be funny though).