Piano Sonata in C Major, Op. 53 "Waldstein"

One of the highlights of Beethoven's piano music, this large-scale work was originally much more extended with its long Andante middle movement. Beethoven finally decided to replace the Andante with a relatively short Adagio introduction to the Rondo finale. In addition to the final version of the "Waldstein" Sonata, this edition also includes the original middle movement, published separately by Beethoven and later called Andante favori (WoO 57), because it may be appealing to play the sonata in this early version and discover the unprecedented dimensions to which Beethoven had pushed the genre of the piano sonata. Alternatively, it may be attractive to combine the final version of the sonata with the Andante favori as a stand-alone piece in the same recital. This Urtext edition is essentially based on the autograph and the first edition as well as Haslinger's complete edition, which is important in detail. Nils Franke's notes on interpretation direct attention to the time when the work was created and to its earliest reception, and thus take a critical look at all-too-familiar performance conventions.