Type: Piano Solo
Location: Baroque Palace of Vienna, Austria
Pianist: Daniel Barenboim
Year: 2016

Watching a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, better known as the “Pathétique”, is like stepping into the heart of Beethoven’s emotional and musical genius. Composed in 1798, the “Pathetique” shattered expectations of what a piano sonata could be. Beethoven asserts his voice and speaks in a bold, stormy, and emotionally raw tone. The introduction is dark and almost orchestral yet soon erupts into a fiercely driven allegro with poetry and humanity in every phrase.