Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 11 in B flat major, Op. 22

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".