[1] It is also known as L'Aurora (The Dawn) in Italian, for the sonority of the opening chords of the third movement, thought to conjure an image of daybreak.

The first movement is in sonata form and common time: it has a repeated exposition with two subject groups, a development section, a recapitulation and a coda.

This phrase is then repeated starting on B♭ major – a whole tone lower – a device Beethoven also used for the opening of the Sonata No.

[3] After a half cadence to the dominant (G major), the opening phrase returns again but this time in a tremolo variation.

Beethoven would later repeat this procedure in his later piano sonatas, notably the Appassionata and Les Adieux.

The second theme, a series of broken chords in triplets, is soon interrupted by a turbulent section in A minor that foreshadows the central episode.

The music returns to C major and the sweet theme is repeated, followed by a series of staccato octaves in C minor that mark the start of the central episode, one of the few cases where such a melodic change is seen, a tactic repeated in larger works like the Emperor Piano Concerto.