Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8 – Second Movement – “Pathetique Sonata”

The Pathetique Sonata was written by Beethoven in 1798 when he was only 27 years old. It is the second movement of his Piano Sonata No. 8, and I would encourage you to seek out the other movements if you like this one.

Although not truly sad throughout the entire piece, this is such a beautiful piece of music that I just had to add it to the collection. I have been drawn more towards the piano pieces of late. I am a want-to-be guitar player, but have always loved the versatility and emotion of the piano.

Sortly after listening to this piece, I was sure I had heard it before – it definitely sounded familiar. On checking Wikipedia I learnt that themes from Piano Sonata No. 8 have been incorporated into the music of other artists. From the Wikipedia article:

As one of the more famous Beethoven pieces, it has been incorporated into several works of popular culture: e.g. it is used as the theme of the film The Man Who Wasn’t There and Billy Joel’s “This Night” from his album An Innocent Man and a Fantasia-like animated sequence of it is included in A Boy Named Charlie Brown. The rock band Kiss incorporated it into “Great Expectations” from their album Destroyer. The work was sampled by the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan in their song “Impossible” from the album Wu-Tang Forever.

Now I am not sure if I have actually heard this piece before, or remember the theme from one of the above references, but I do know one thing – I really like it!

I hope you enjoy this piece of sad classical music.

If you would like to purchase a recording of this piece, I recommend Beethoven: Piano Sonatas “Pathétique” & “Appassionata” from Amazon.com.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8 - Second Movement - "Pathetique Sonata", 9.4 out of 10 based on 5 ratings