Beethoven’s most popular composition for piano was not published during his lifetime, only being discovered (by Ludwig Nohl) forty years after his death.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Sonata No 8 in A minor, K. 310 / 300d, was written in 1778. The sonata is the first of only two Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart piano sonatas in a minor key (the other being No. 14 in C minor, K. 457).
Dance of the Blessed Spirits is a melody from Orpheus and Eurydice, an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck, based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi.
The Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1785. The first performance took place at the Mehlgrube Casino in Vienna on 11 February 1785, with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as the soloist.
Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel), Op. 2, D 118, is a Lied composed by Franz Schubert using the text from Part One, scene 18 of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust. Gretchen am Spinnrade was originally composed for the soprano voice.
The sonata No. 9 is commonly known as the Kreutzer Sonata after the violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer, to whom it was ultimately dedicated, but who thoroughly disliked the piece and refused to play it.
The Trout Quintet (Forellenquintett) is the popular name for the Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667, by Franz Schubert. The piano quintet was composed in 1819, when he was 22 years old; it was not published, however, until 1829, a year after his death.
