Comprehensive programme notes on each Sonata are available below ... You can also read a general introduction to Beethoven's piano sonatas.

So wrote Beethoven from the Austrian spa town of Baden ... without singing any definite notes. When questioned as to what it was he answered, 'A theme for the last movement of the sonata [Op.

Even in full-blown deafness, Beethoven was still able to compose by placing one end of a wooden stick onto his piano and clenching the other end with his teeth. When notes were struck, the ...