Waldstein mvt. III - all one movement?

[presto-con-fuoco]

Hey all, a bit of a technical question - just interested in what people think.

In the Henle edition of Waldstein, the Prestissimo at the end of the movement has a sort of tempo heading that is used for the beginning of movements, and before the Prestissimo begins, Beethoven writes “attacca”. I’ve never seen attacca used to join two segments that are not separate movements.

I know everyone plays it and records it as though it’s one movement - I was just wondering if these facts imply Beethoven thought of the Prestissimo as a fourth movement/finale.

Thanks!

[lelle]

I'm looking in my own Henle right now. There's nothing unusual about that tempo heading, they look like that when you change the tempo in the middle of a piece as well. If Henle had wanted to show it as a separate movement, there would have been an indentation on the staves, like in the beginning of the Rondo movement, and the bar count would have been reset as well. I think the attacca instruction from Beethoven should be interpreted as the Prestissimo starting suddenly, as a surprise, directly after the fermata, and that you should make a small silence between them, for example.