Hello everyone,

I am an amateur pianist who had been self taught for the last three years. Just two weeks ago, I began to take formal lessons. I completed my first piece (the Fur Elise) and now my insructor thinks I'm ready to tackle one of the Sonatas of Beethoven. I have never played a sonata before. I went and purchased the complete Sonatas (Henle Urtext) in two volumes, and now I need to choose one to work on. Do you have any recommendations?
I would like to learn one that is not too technically demanding at a fast pace (for example, I don't think I could play the 'presto agitato' of Op.27 nr.2) I like the Pathetique Op.13 first movement. Do you think this is too difficult for me? Is there any other one that you would recommend for me to "pioneer" the Beethoven Sonatas ?

Thanks for your recommendations.

Hi and welcome John.
A safe recommenation would be to try the two op.49 sonatas (which are usually called Sonatinas). From all other sonatas, only the first movements of the Mondschein and Pathetique are anywhere near suitable for the beginning pianist. I would not aim any higher for now, as far as Beethoven is concerned. But I'd recommend Mozart and Haydn sonatas which are generally a lot less demandng technically.

Mozart is usually harder than it sounds. The only 'easy' one would be the sonata no. 15 in C Major, K545

Beethoven is hard to play. I agree with Mr.Techneut that the "Sonatinas" are the best option.

Some Scarlatti sonatas are managable, also pay attention to the sonatinas from various "minor" composers (Kuhlau for example).

also you should look at this

http://imslp.org/index.php?title=Catego ... +Sergei%29

The list will expand the horizons for anyone. Why should we stick to the "cliche", when there are hundreds of other sonatas which can be just as good as some of the greats? (My opinion of course)

Surely you meant the second movement of the Pathetique?

I agree with the Op. 49 recommendations.

-Terez, knows them all now...

Yeah of course I did. Just testing

Most everything is harder than it sounds
Purely technically speaking though, Mozart is much easier than Beethoven, except perhaps the last sonata. Then again, Mozart is more vulnerable musically and you can't get away with anything.

Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. I thought it would be easy to learn Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turca", but I found it more difficult than I had imagined. It's intricate, and precision with each note is a must. I found a similar problem when I tried Bach's "Goldberg Variations." I got frustrated with the intricacy and the many ornamentations. Someday I will try Mozart (I like his works), but not right now.

i too recomend op.49.
followed by op.10 no.2 (this one is a great one to grasp the style of beethoven's works)-i worked on it previously myself

A good alternative to the op. 49 would be op. 14 n°1. It's not usually among the most popular ones, but if it hasn't caught your attention before, just listen to Sokolov's performance.

Another one that is frequently tackled by "young" piano students is the first movement of op. 2 n°1. It's a great piece to get a grasp of the "classical" style. It ended up growing a lot on me, even though I didn't like it at first.

Hi,

There's a distinction in Beethoven sonatas between the "grand" sonatas, and the "little" ones.

For the first category, I heard that we usually start with Pathétique (complete). For the second one, I don't know, but Op.49 is not so easy...

U can also start with something a more difficult, like the presto agitato of the "Moonlight", Sonata #14, if you like it.

I started out with the Op. 49 ones, when I was younger. They're not easy, but definitely the easiest of the Beethoven sonatas.

I thinks technically, the "Moonlight", 1st mouvement, is easier...

Of course, but it's not a whole sonata.