Beethoven wrote 32 piano sonatas over nearly three decades, and together they trace his whole career, from the early works that grew out of Haydn and Mozart to the vast late sonatas that pointed toward the Romantic era. Pianists often spend a lifetime with them.
Here are 10 of the greatest, counting down to number one, with the movement to start with for each.
The short version
If you only listen to three, start with the Moonlight, the Pathétique and the Appassionata. Then take on the Hammerklavier, the biggest of them all.
1. Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90
1814 · E minor · Two movements
Start with: “Second movement”
Beethoven wrote this sonata in the summer of 1814 and dedicated it to Prince Moritz von Lichnowsky. It has only two movements, and instead of the usual Italian tempo markings he gave both of them long instructions in German, asking for the first to be played “with liveliness and with feeling and expression throughout”.
The first movement is restless and compact, full of sudden contrasts. The second is a gentle, songlike rondo that looks ahead to Schubert. An old story claims the movements were titled “A Contest Between Head and Heart” and “Conversation with the Beloved”, but the biographer Anton Schindler made that up.
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2. Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-flat major, Op. 31 No. 3, “The Hunt”
1802 · E-flat major · Four movements
Start with: “Presto con fuoco (finale)”
Written in 1802, this is one of Beethoven’s sunniest sonatas. It has four movements, and unusually none of them is a true slow movement: a playful Allegro, a scherzo, a tender minuet and a galloping finale. The nickname “The Hunt” came from someone else, inspired by a theme in the finale that sounds like a horn call.
The opening is a small joke in itself, starting with a questioning chord that seems to belong in the middle of a phrase rather than the beginning. The minuet is the most serious movement, warm and sweet, before the Presto con fuoco finale races off at full tilt.
3. Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp major, Op. 78, “À Thérèse”
1809 · F-sharp major · Two movements
Start with: “First movement”
Beethoven dedicated this short sonata, written in 1809, to Countess Thérèse von Brunswick, which is where its nickname comes from. It has just two movements, a lyrical Adagio cantabile that opens into an Allegro ma non troppo, and a quick, playful Allegro vivace. A full performance lasts only around 11 or 12 minutes.
It is often overlooked next to the big-name sonatas, but Beethoven thought highly of it. According to his pupil Carl Czerny, Beethoven named it, together with the Appassionata, among his favorites. The unusual key of F-sharp major gives it a glowing, intimate sound.
4. Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2, “Tempest”
1801–1802 · D minor · Three movements
Start with: “First movement”
Beethoven wrote the “Tempest” in 1801 and 1802, the period when he was facing up to his growing deafness. The first movement switches between quiet, hovering chords and outbursts of turmoil, and in the middle of it the piano breaks into a bare, speechlike recitative, something almost unheard of in a sonata at the time.
The slow middle movement is calm and spacious, and the finale is a restless Allegretto that keeps spinning one short figure over and over. The nickname comes from Anton Schindler, who claimed Beethoven told him to read Shakespeare’s The Tempest to understand the piece. As with many of Schindler’s stories, it may not be true.
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5. Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, “Pathétique”
1798 · C minor · Three movements
Start with: “Adagio cantabile”
Beethoven wrote the Pathétique in 1798, when he was 27, and dedicated it to his friend and patron Prince Karl von Lichnowsky. The title, Grande sonate pathétique, was the publisher’s idea, but Beethoven liked it. The slow, heavy chords of the opening Grave lead into a stormy Allegro, and the drama made it a hit right away.
The second movement, Adagio cantabile, is one of the most loved melodies Beethoven ever wrote, and it is often a student’s first taste of his music. The rondo finale returns to C minor with a quick, urgent theme. Of all the early sonatas, this is the one heard most often.
6. Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2, “Moonlight”
1801 · C-sharp minor · Three movements
Start with: “Adagio sostenuto”
Beethoven called this 1801 sonata “quasi una fantasia”, in the manner of a fantasy, and dedicated it to his pupil Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. He never called it the “Moonlight”. That name came from the poet Ludwig Rellstab, who compared the first movement to moonlight on a lake, and it stuck after Beethoven’s death.
The famous first movement, with its slow, steady triplets under a quiet melody, is within reach of intermediate players. The real challenge is the finale, a stormy Presto agitato full of rushing arpeggios. Putting the weightiest movement last, rather than first, was one of the ways this sonata broke with Classical habits.
7. Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major, Op. 81a, “Les Adieux”
1809–1810 · E-flat major · Three movements
Start with: “Das Lebewohl (first movement)”
In 1809 Napoleon’s army attacked Vienna, and Beethoven’s patron and pupil Archduke Rudolph had to leave the city. Beethoven wrote this sonata in response, and its three movements tell the story: “Das Lebewohl” (The Farewell), “Abwesenheit” (The Absence) and “Das Wiedersehen” (The Return). It was published in 1811 with a dedication to Rudolph.
Beethoven disliked the French title. To him “Lebewohl”, a personal goodbye to one person, meant something warmer than “Adieux”, so he wrote the syllables “Le-be-wohl” over the opening three chords. The finale bursts in with joy at Rudolph’s return and is one of the most demanding movements on this list.
8. Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53, “Waldstein”
1804 · C major · Three movements
Start with: “Rondo (finale)”
Beethoven finished the Waldstein in the summer of 1804 and dedicated it to Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, one of his earliest patrons from Bonn. It is bright and full of energy, opening with fast, pulsing chords, and it shows him making full use of the bigger, more powerful pianos of the time.
He first wrote a long slow movement for it, then replaced it with a short Introduzione that leads straight into the finale; the original was published separately as the Andante favori. The rondo finale is the showpiece, with a hushed main tune over a pedal trill and octave glissandos near the end that some pianists split between the hands.
9. Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57, “Appassionata”
1804–1806 · F minor · Three movements
Start with: “Allegro ma non troppo – Presto (finale)”
Beethoven wrote the Appassionata between 1804 and 1806 and dedicated it to Count Franz Brunswick. It is one of his most turbulent works, and he counted it among his favorites. The nickname was added by a publisher in 1838, though Beethoven’s own manuscript does have “La Pasionata” written on the cover.
The opening Allegro assai begins in a hush and erupts into violent outbursts. A calm set of variations, marked Andante con moto, follows, then runs without a break into the furious finale, which ends with a headlong Presto coda. A performance lasts around 25 minutes.
10. Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier”
1817–1818 · B-flat major · Four movements
Start with: “Adagio sostenuto”Around 45 minutes
The Hammerklavier is Beethoven’s longest and hardest piano sonata, taking 40 to 45 minutes to play. He composed it in 1817 and 1818 and dedicated it to his patron Archduke Rudolph. “Hammerklavier” is simply a German word for the piano, part of Beethoven’s effort at the time to use German terms instead of Italian ones.
It has four movements: a huge Allegro, a short Scherzo, a deep and slow Adagio sostenuto, and a finale that opens with a searching Largo before launching into a fierce fugue. It was thought almost unplayable, and the first documented public performance came in 1836, when Franz Liszt played it in Paris.
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Which Beethoven piano sonata is your favorite?
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Summing up
From the youthful drama of the Pathétique to the vast fugue that closes the Hammerklavier, these ten sonatas show how far Beethoven pushed the piano and the sonata form. Each is worth hearing complete, not just the famous movement.
Which Beethoven sonata would you add to the list?
