2020 is the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. Mrinda and I were supposed to attend an all Beethoven concert celebrating this anniversary at the Germantown performing arts center, with the main event being a performance of Beethoven’s first piano concerto and Valery Kuleshov as soloist. It was cancelled due to COVID-19.
However, in honor of this important date, I wanted to learn some Beethoven sonatas that I had never worked on or even heard. I went to the IMSLP and listened to all 32 of them and found a few that I was interested in.
No. 4 in E-flat major is really fun to play. Andras Schiff has a brilliant lecture on this piece here. I found it interesting that this is the longest sonata next to the Hammerklavier. I was totally unfamiliar with this sonata, so it was a great surprise.