Beethoven: Piano Sonatas No. 21, Op. 53 "Waldstein" & No. 22, Op. 54

Among Beethoven's 32 sonatas for piano, both the grand sonata often referred to as the "Waldstein"-sonata thanks to its dedication to count Waldstein, and its much shorter sister sonata composed during the same period stand out as experimental and unconventional in many ways. It is at times hard to imagine that both works are composed by the same composer, such are the contrasts. While the former is highly virtuosic and extroverted, the latter is introspective and abstract, possibly one of the reasons it is one of the least performed of the sonatas.