The depth of Beethoven’s late period compositions astounds me. The technical difficulty of the compositions also appears quite high compared to early period compositions, and I am most likely not capable of playing many of them yet.

Though I found the majority of the first movement of Beethoven’s final sonata profound, the chord about 2/3 of the way through introducing the developmental section is extremely surprising to find in a Romantic piece of music.

With the exception of the “boogie woogie” variation (which the movement is worth hearing for alone because it’s far ahead of Beethoven’s time), the second movement of the sonata clearly indicates that this is Beethoven’s last sonata – it’s as if he’s quitely and remorsefully bidding the form goodbye.

All in all, it’s a great piece, and Wikipedia has a great recording to listen to.