Beethoven once reported that he had written down his three last piano sonatas (op. 109, 110, 111) in 1820 to 1822 in one go, and they certainly form a closely related group. Beethoven dedicated his very last sonata, no. 32 in C minor op. 111, to his patron Archduke Rudolph of Austria, who shortly beforehand had also been the dedicatee of Beethoven’s famous “Missa solemnis”.

Experts consider Beethoven’s last sonata to be the great, concluding climax of his piano sonata output. Its unusual two-...