Although originally composed for the Austrian pianist and composer Joseph Wölfl, it was dedicated to Countess Anna Luisa Barbara von Keglevic. In Vienna it was rumored that there could be feelings between the two that went far beyond their working relationship, and it is perhaps for this reason that the Sonata was also called “Amorosa”.

In it, Beethoven seems to want to put aside the “opposite principles” by favoring an idyllic atmosphere, characterized by many musical ideas, great emotional momentum and extreme dynamics ranging from pianissimo to fortissimo; All this makes it one of the most significant works of this period.

It was with it, as François-Rhine-Tranchefort said: «(…) which inaugurates a sort of “symphonic” cycle in which the piano seems to appropriate the different orchestral timbres.», while for Piero Rattalino it: «(…) it represents an aspect of Beethoven’s personality that is wrongly overlooked. It is easier to observe Beethoven’s personality in its pathetic or tragic aspects, or in its humorous and playful aspects. The Sonata Opus 7 brings to light an idyllic aspect, an aspect that we could call ‘Schubertian’.”

It is, however, Beethoven’s first truly great piano-sonata masterpiece: it was with it that Beethoven began to build his primacy in this musical genre.

The original manuscript is lost. Sketches concerning the third movement — some of them considerably different from the final version — are found in a notebook preserved in the British Museum, described by Nottebohm and Shedlock, and are also reported by Prod’homme.

First Movement:

In the first movement “Allegro molto e con brio”, with an exuberant and lively character, while keeping in mind an important part of the previous musical past (Haydn and Mozart, certainly, but also Domenico Scarlatti, Johann Sebastian Bach and the violinists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries), Beethoven imposes his own personal path. All this makes Della Croce say that with this movement, the composer from Bonn gives: “(…) a welcome to the eighteenth century and to the dear old masters” prefiguring, in the joyful flow of the images, alternating with the romantic cantabile of the second idea, the fantastic vigor of the Waldstein-Sonatas.

Characterized by significant technical difficulties—large leaps, connected octaves, and broken octaves—this movement already foreshadows the future path Beethoven would take in this genre. Yet, it is also the silences and many other details that make this movement a piece of “joyous elegance and enchanting expressiveness.” In particular, Beethoven here broadens the scope of construction, with an accumulation of main ideas (descending chords and the succession of triplets for the first theme, a sort of chorale for the second) and secondary ideas, a trait typical of his early years. It is also worth noting the folkloric resemblance of the second theme to an episode in the Rondo of the previous Sonata, Op. 2 No. 3.

The sections of the Exposition and Recapitulation are particularly expansive, especially in comparison to the relatively modest Development.

Second Movement:
The Largo, with great expressiveness in C major, features a phraseology of short breaths, almost reluctant to expand, giving way to the rhetoric of the cantabile. The melody overflows beyond the strophic form of the Lied. It is a solemn page, marked by contrasting and opposing motifs (hymn, recitative, operatic accompaniment), with two outer sections that progress in a withdrawn and fragmented manner. These frame a central section (a grave melody in A-flat) that employs the same technique (sustained chords supported by detached bass) as in Op. 2 No. 2. A certain dark imagination seems to challenge the course of this melody, scattering it into fragments, but in the conclusion, the initial atmosphere of serenity is restored.

This emotional expansion is realized in a pianistic writing with strong dynamic contrasts, which seems to foreshadow Beethoven’s orchestral timbre, requiring the performer to exhibit profound expressiveness. At the same time, it makes this second movement one of the most successful slow movements of Beethoven’s early style. The prevailing atmosphere is entirely free from sadness, and instead, a desperate search for tranquility emerges, making it, as Dalla Croce puts it, a “mirror of his inner conflicts.”

Third Movement:
The second Allegro is the first complete model of Beethoven’s Scherzo; no longer a classic minuet, it presents a typically Romantic atmosphere with a character of idyllic fantasy and a mood we might describe as almost pre-Schubertian. It is marked by a conversational quality, with a game of questions and answers based on elementary rhythmic cells.

Of particular interest is the central section in the minor key, forming the Trio, which functions as a contrast. This section, with a succession of rapid arpeggios in triplets aimed at a timbral effect, clearly moves away from the 18th-century aura.

Fourth Movement:

The fourth movement “Rondo (poco allegretto e grazioso)”, as Charles Rosen says: “is a finale with an amiable character, in a style that amplifies Mozart’s many final rondo allegrettos  by adding a considerably greater cantabile and a central section of impressive brilliance“.

It is one of the most successful of its kind, due to the character of the refrain (a long descending melody over a repeated dominant pedal), to which the first and third couplets try to conform, while the second, in C minor, contrasts sharply, at least on the surface, with a distinctly different effect, and the carefully calibrated structure.

Already in this Rondo, we can see that perfect construction which gives each recurrence of the refrain an “added value,” not only through the ornamental variations but also through the different instrumentation of the theme. The theme becomes the protagonist of a kind of expressive and emotional “journey.” This technique will evolve, through the most varied results, all the way to the Rondo of Sonata Op. 90.

A stroke of genius is the introduction of the coda: a dark reprise in B major, which, by modulating to E-flat, will give the establishment of the main key an ineffable euphoria.