The Three Piano Sonatas, WoO 47, were composed by
Ludwig van Beethoven in 1782 and 1783, when he was eleven and twelve years old. The sonatas show a certain level of precocity and serve as a precursor to the masterworks he later produced. They are dedicated to the Prince elector (German: Kurfürst) Maximilian Frederick and therefore also known as the "Kurfürstensonaten".
Like
Mozart's, Beethoven's musical talent was recognized at a young age, and these three sonatas give an early glimpse of the composer's abilities, as well as his boldness. Beethoven was writing in a form usually attempted by older, more mature composers, as the sonata was a cornerstone of Classical piano literature. Since they were written at such an early age (and Beethoven himself did not assign them opus numbers), the works have historically been omitted from the canon of Beethoven's piano sonatas. However, Barry Cooper included the trio in his critical edition of the sonatas created for ABRSM, arguing that "A complete edition has to be complete, and if you ignore early works, you don't show the longer trajectory of the composer's development." The inclusion of these three works raises Beethoven's total number of piano sonatas from 32 to 35.
The beginning of No. 1 in E♭ major
The beginning of No. 2 in F minor
The beginning of No. 3 in D major
