Piano Sonata No. 27 (Beethoven)

90 was written in the summer of 1814—Beethoven's late Middle period—and dedicated to Prince Moritz von Lichnowsky, a friend and benefactor who was also the dedicatee of the Eroica Variations.

As I am unwilling you should suppose that a step I have already taken is prompted by your recent favors, or by any motive of the sort, I must tell you that a sonata of mine is about to appear, dedicated to you.

[2]Beethoven's friend and biographer Anton Schindler reported that the sonata's two movements were to be titled Kampf zwischen Kopf und Herz ("A Contest Between Head and Heart") and Conversation mit der Geliebten ("Conversation with the Beloved"), respectively, and that the sonata as a whole referred to Moritz's romance with a woman he was thinking of marrying.

Later studies showed that the story was almost certainly invented by Schindler, at least in part, and that he went so far as to forge an entry in one of Beethoven's conversation books to validate the anecdote.

A few of Beethoven's works of this period carried similar instructions in place of the traditional Italian tempo markings.

Its restless character has been noted by many commentators, including Donald Francis Tovey, who called it "full of passionate and lonely energy",[5] and Charles Rosen, who wrote of its "despairing and impassioned" mood.

This posed a challenge for a work in the key of E, as the bass end of the instrument fell one semitone short of the tonic.