Beethoven’s revolutionary and innovative piano sonatas form one of the most important collections of works in the whole history of music. Spanning several decades of his life as a composer, Beethoven reveals the full depth of his inspiration in these ‘intimate symphonies’, as the piano sonatas are sometimes called. They have the emotional scale of a symphony but are more intimate and frequently more profound. They are virtuoso pieces, yet they are not written to show off the player’s skill. Each is unique in form and content. Theatrical and spectacular tendencies contrast strongly with the expression of a profound contemplative inner life to be found in his adagios, a contrast which epitomises the permanent conflict within him. Many of his piano compositions are marked by it. In their romantic outbursts and their flights to the higher registers of the keyboard one is tempted to see an image of the man who strives to tear himself from earthly attachments in order to attain the summits of the ideal. Gradually, the sonatas began to break away from the symphonic mould and Beethoven turned more and more towards an ascetic and contemplative mode of expression.

Early Sonatas

No. 1 Sonata in f minor op. 2 no. 1
No. 2 Sonata in A major op. 2 no. 2
No. 3 Sonata in C major op. 2 no. 3
No. 4 Sonata in E-flat major op. 7 ‘Grand Sonata’
No. 5 Sonata in c minor op. 10 no. 1
No. 6 Sonata in F major op. 10 no. 2
No. 7 Sonata in D major op. 10 no. 3
No. 8 Sonata in c minor op. 13 ‘Pathétique’
No. 9 Sonata in E major op. 14 no. 1
No. 10 Sonata in G major op. 14 no. 2
No. 11 Sonata in B-flat major op. 22

Middle Sonatas

No. 12 Sonata in A-flat major op. 26 ‘Funeral March’
No. 13 Sonata in E-flat major op. 27 no. 1 ‘Sonata quasi una fantasia’
No. 14 Sonata in c-sharp minor op. 27 no. 2 ‘Sonata quasi una fantasia’ ‘Mondschein’
No. 15 Sonata in D major op. 28 ‘Pastorale’
No. 16 Sonata in G major op. 31 no. 1
No. 17 Sonata in d minor op. 31 no. 2
No. 18 Sonata in E-flat major op. 31 no. 3
No. 19 Sonata in g minor op. 49 no. 1
No. 20 Sonata in G major op. 49 no. 2
No. 21 Sonata in C major op. 53 ‘Waldstein’
No. 22 Sonata in F major op. 54
No. 23 Sonata in f minor op. 57 ‘Appassionata’
No. 24 Sonata in F-sharp major op. 78
No. 25 Sonata in G major op. 79
No. 26 Sonata in E-flat major op. 81a ‘Das Lebewohl’
No. 27 Sonata in e minor op. 90

Late Sonatas

No. 28 Sonata in A major op. 101
No. 29 Sonata in B-flat major op. 106 ‘Hammerklavier’
No. 30 Sonata in E major op. 109
No. 31 Sonata in A-flat major op. 110
No. 32 Sonata in c minor op. 111