Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-flat Major Op. 22

Description

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.