Piano Sonata Op. 57 No. 23 (Beethoven)

Overview
Piano Sonata Op. 57 No. 23 in F Minor is one of the greatest and most loved piano sonatas by Ludwig Van Beethoven-even he likes it the most! This piece is one of his most stormy and violent sounding sonatas along with his Hammerklavier Sonata. It was one of the few sonatas that he composed that was not named during his lifetime.

Technique
This sonata demonstrates an exceptional level of difficulty as the performer must go through 24 minutes of making this piece sound like music, not sound. The first movement contains a lot of 3/4/5th finger trills which can take weeks to overcome. At other sections, this piece must sound dark and ominous while playing like a low sounding drum on the left hand. It is very easy to miss notes which can be a disaster if the performer cannot handle the amount of physical and mental stamina required to play this piece. In the 3rd movement, the difficulty rises up again. The hand rotations and finger dexterity you need to play the 3rd movement is quite impressive. Not to mention it is just pages upon pages of just semiquavers you hand to endure through.

Musicality
Since that this is a Beethoven sonata, playing it technically perfect is only half of the work. Musicality is a part that Beethoven takes very seriously. Any missed sense in interpretation can ruin an entire phrase, possibly the whole piece. You could spend a whole lifetime just working on this sonata alone. The first movement has a very basic theme that scatters throughout the entire movement while the 2nd and 3rd movement gets more complex. The main theme must be played like darkness and should sound ominous as the f minor arpeggio slowly rises up. Also it will be a great idea to keep in mind which is the melody and which is the accompaniment. The 2nd movement should sound like sorrow and sadness with some parts going to be played brighter. The 3rd movement shouldn't sound hard, it should sound flowly which is on aspect on why Beethoven's sonatas are so musically challenging.