Donald Francis Tovey wrote, "Sir Hubert Parry has aptly compared the opening of [this sonata] with that of the finale of Mozart's G minor symphony to show how much closer Beethoven's texture is.

The slow movement ... well illustrates the rare cases in which Beethoven imitates Mozart to the detriment of his own proper richness of tone and thought, while the finale in its central episode brings a misapplied and somewhat diffuse structure in Mozart's style into a direct conflict with themes as Beethovenish in their terseness as in their sombre passion".

An ascending bass progression leading to a half-close in the key of A♭ major is played three times (mm.

A new melodic subject based on a descending arpeggio is presented over a ceaseless dominant pedal in broken octaves (mm.

This dual quality of unity and contrast achieved by using the same musical material in opposite ways (to articulate the tonic and secondary keys respectively), proved to be an effective device for Beethoven, which he would use again for his other much more famous piano sonata in F minor, Op.

26–31) of the 3-note motif that followed the descending arpeggio, the music seems to take off on a loud closing theme outlining a cadential progression (III6, IV6, V64, V7).

41–48) echoing the second half of the opening subject (m. 2), again with shadings of A♭ minor, and eventually resolving in an emphatically perfect cadence (the first one so far).

101–145) starts loudly instead of quietly (a common device in Beethoven's early piano sonatas), and with many of the left-hand chords now happening on strong beats, unlike the syncopated exposition.

[4] At the end of the recapitulation, instead of giving the perfect cadence in the exact parallel location to that of the exposition, Beethoven delays the resolution for an extra 6 measures, during which two 'fake' attempts at a final resolution (in the subdominant and relative major keys, respectively) heighten anticipation for the 'true' cadence.

17–22) accompanied by quiet parallel thirds, followed by a passage full of thirty-second notes in C major (mm.

3[4]) was the earliest composition by Beethoven now in general circulation; it was adapted from the slow movement of his Piano Quartet No.

[citation needed] The trio is built around longer, more lyric phrases that pass between the right and left hands in imitative polyphony.

[2][4] The fourth movement, like the first and third, is in the tonic-minor key (F minor), is in cut common time and bears the tempo marking prestissimo ("very fast").

[4] The movement opens with fast triplet eighth-note arpeggios on the left hand, over which the main three-chord motif in staccato quarter notes is introduced two beats later (shown above).

The eighth-note triplet figuration pervades throughout most of the exposition, alongside the main motif's character of "energetic, frantic pursuit of something elusive".

This A♭ major theme is articulated in quarter-notes, providing a respite from the eighth-note triplets that pervaded most of the exposition.

138–192) reprises the whole exposition nearly identically (apart from very slight changes in dynamics and voicings), but significantly all the material is now re-stated in the tonic key (F minor), as would be expected of any conventional sonata form.