Beethoven, Ludwig van - Beethoven Piano Sonata in Bb Major Op 22

Composed in 1800, this work was published two years later under the title “Grande Sonate” in order to demonstrate the resumption of an earlier, four-movement sonata model. Beethoven proudly announced to his publisher: “This sonata is a winner” – which implied not only both the high technical demands through brilliant, virtuoso passages, but also the sonata’s particular musical characteristics. In 1807 a critic judged that the work combined “in a very original manner brilliance and power, solemnity and poignancy, cheerfulness, pleasantness, and an unsettling and great loftiness”.