Bookended by two famous sonatas, the Waldstein op. 53 and the Appassionata op. 57, the F-major Sonata op. 54 has always lived in the shadows, regrettably. In this first large-scale two-movement sonata, Beethoven experiments with striking character contrasts in the first movement and a virtuosic perpetuum mobile duet in the second.

In both interpretation and mastery of technical difficulties, this sonata therefore poses a considerable challenge for pianists and might have been avoided for this...