Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas are considered probably his greatest piano sonatas. But did you know that it's possible to objectively rank them from worst to best? You won't BELIEVE number 17!
#32: Sonata No. 11 in Bb major, Op. 22
Beethoven famously wrote of this piece "Die Sonate hat sich gewaschen," which translates roughly to "alright here it is now pay me my money." Okay, not really... he regarded it as one of his best early works. But it has all the personality of a flat circle - perfect in form and without defect, but entirely uninteresting.
#31: Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2 No. 2
Okay, Beethoven was just messing with us, right? That arpeggio in the final movement is supposed to be funny, right?
#30: Sonata No. 22 in F major, Op. 54
Have you ever felt like everyone's telling an inside joke that you're not a part of and never will be? Well listen to this! While this sonata gets points for being experimental in form (no "first movement"), there's clearly something else going on, some joke where the punchline was lost 200 years ago. What other explanation is there for Beethoven writing a several-minute passage of random octaves?
#29: Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2 No. 3
Finally, musicologists have an example of what 25 minutes of uninterrupted passagework sounds like.
#28: Sonata No. 29 in Bb major, Op. 106 "Hammerklavier"
You know that one friend you have who manages to talk on and on for a half-hour about something that should have taken five minutes? That's this piece. Each movement has these grand designs, and then just, uh, goes on and on about them. Here's another little-known fact: Beethoven initially intended the third movement to be over six hours long, but he lost the last page so it's only five.
#27: Sonata No. 20 in G major, Op. 49 No. 2
It's commonly thought that this and the next-ranked sonatas were both composed early in Beethoven's career but were published much later. They are often dismissed because they are by far the shortest and the easiest. And as every art music composer is taught: "any piece of music which is easy to play or understand without seventeen years of musical training is bad." (It's in the orientation speech.) Yet these sonatas really aren't bad at all. I like them. They're pleasant to listen to and can be played even by amateur pianists.
#26: Sonata No. 19 in G minor, Op. 49 No. 1
Now imagine the previous sonata, but better. That's this one.
#25: No. 9 in E major, Op. 14 No. 1
There's really not much that can be said about this one, good or bad. It's not too long, not too short, not too hard, and not too easy. Sometimes it feels like there are too many ideas floating around, and every four bars is a completely different sonata, at least in the first movement. It's known as the first obvious use of "Sturm und Drang" in Beethoven's works, where he'd contrast lyrical passages with more violent ones relatively quickly. Like all fledgling ideas, it's a bit awkward here and feels like he's only really beginning to tap the potential for that musical style, particularly in the first movement where there are just too many changes that don't really go anywhere. Plus, the final movement does feel like it goes on a bit too long toward the end, like Beethoven's "Strum und Drang" ran out of "Dampf." It's a good sonata to begin with after playing the "practice sonatas" nos. 19 and 20, since it requires a greater mastery of the instrument without having to devote one's life to practice. But there's really not much that can be said about this one.