The exposition, marked Allegro di molto con brio, is in 22 time (alla breve) in the home key of C minor and features three themes.

Some performers of the sonata include the introduction in the repeat of the exposition (Rudolf Serkin and András Schiff, for example), but most return to the beginning of the allegro section.

The sonata Pathétique was an important success for Beethoven, selling well[5] and helping create his reputation as a composer,[6] not just as an extraordinary pianist.

His music teacher, on being told about his discovery, "warned me against playing or studying eccentric productions before I had developed a style based on more respectable models.

Without paying heed to his instructions, however, I laid Beethoven's works on the piano, in the order of their appearance, and found in them such consolation and pleasure as no other composer ever vouchsafed me.

Above all, every single thing became, in his hands, a new creation, wherein his always legato playing, one of the particular characteristics of his execution, formed an important part.

"[7] Musicologists have speculated on whether the Pathétique may have been inspired by Mozart's piano sonata K. 457, since both compositions are in C minor and have three very similar movements.

[9] Both works open with a declamatory fanfare marked Grave, sharing a distinct combination of dotted rhythms, melodic contour, and texture.

It is known that Beethoven was familiar with the works of Bach, having studied The Well-Tempered Clavier as a youth and returning to his predecessor's compositional styles later in life.