Beethoven’s most popular composition for piano was not published during his lifetime, only being discovered (by Ludwig Nohl) forty years after his death.
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.
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 1 was written in 1795, then revised in 1800. The first performance took place on 18 December 1795 in Vienna with Ludwig van Beethoven himself as soloist.
The Concerto No 2 was composed primarily between 1787 and 1789, although it did not attain the form in which it was published until 1795. Beethoven did write a second finale for it in 1798 for performance in Prague, but that is not the finale that was published.
The Piano Sonata No 17 in D Minor, was composed in 1801–02 by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is usually referred to as “The Tempest” (or Der Sturm in his native German), but the sonata was not given this title by Beethoven, or indeed referred to as such during his lifetime.
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 21 in C major, Op. 53, known as the Waldstein, is one of the three most notable sonatas of his middle period (the other two being the Appassionata, Op. 57, and Les Adieux, Op. 81a).
