Piano Sonata No. 3 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2, No. 3, is a sonata written for solo piano, composed in 1795. It is dedicated to Joseph Haydn and is often referred to as Beethoven's first virtuosic piano sonata. The three Op. 2 sonatas all contain four movements each, an unusual length which seems to show that Beethoven was aspiring towards composing a symphony. It is both the weightiest and longest of the three Op. 2 sonatas, lasting over 25 minutes, presenting many difficulties, including difficult trills, awkward hand movements, and forearm rotation. It is Beethoven's second longest piano sonata in his early period, only to Beethoven's Grand Sonata in E Major, Op. 7, published a year later.
Piano Sonata (Martinů)
Bohuslav Martinů's Piano Sonata, H. 350 was written in Nice in the last months of 1954 for Rudolf Serkin, who premiered it in Düsseldorf in 1957 coupled with Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata No. 29. The first performance in the Eastern Bloc took place in Brno later that year, by Eliška Nováková.