Piano Sonata no. 11 B flat major op. 22

As a highly virtuoso composition, the B flat major Sonata no. 11 did not appear within a group with other sonatas, but rather held its own as Opus 22 under the title “Grand Sonata”. Beethoven offered it to his publisher Hoffmeister in December 1800 as “a large solo sonata” and shortly afterwards warned explicitly once again: “this sonata is very taxing”. Among the earlier sonatas, the B flat major Sonata is chronologically the first for which a manuscript was also available for the edition.

Admittedly, not from Beethoven, but at least a copyist’s manuscript that he reviewed, and on the basis of which the reliability of the original edition can be checked – an editorially important factor which one unfortunately has to do without in the sonatas with lower opus numbers.

Responsible for this new edition are again the editors Norbert Gertsch and Murray Perahia. The fingerings were provided by Murray Perahia himself.