The first movement is instantly recognizable - terribly easy to "play," but only a great pianist can capture the nuances of the feeling. The second movement is the calm before the storm of the third movement. Quite pretty, though my least favorite of the three movements. The third movement is what gets it for me - it's terribly complicated and terribly technical. Yet, given this, it is utterly beautiful and drenched with passion, anger and other emotions. Only a great pianist can play this (at all), let alone play it with the emotion that's needed to take it from a display of technical brilliance to truly being art. From Wikipedia's article on the sonata:
Of the final movement, Charles Rosen has written "it is the most unbridled in its representation of emotion. Even today, two hundred years later, its ferocity is astonishing."
Wilhelm Kempff performing Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, first movement:
Second movement:
Third movement:
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