When I just started listening to classical music, many years ago, the first piece that really struck me was the Tempest sonata, especially the third movement. I remember thinking that if the world came to an end and all that was left was this one piece of music, it would all still be worth it. I continue to marvel at how this piece creates this stream, a veritable tempest, of emotions from utter despair to struggle and reconciliation, and how the music here just grabs your soul and leads it through all these emotional states. Beethoven wrote this piece in 1801, when he started to realize that he was going deaf, and he was in despair not just because he was losing his hearing but mostly because of the cosmic injustice of it all - as he wrote himself, the hearing he was losing was not just ANY hearing, it was HIS hearing, perhaps one of the highest achievements of human genius, and yet the fate picked him for this predicament. He resolved to overcome this catastrophic fate through his art, and indeed most of his legacy was created after that trying time, but I think knowing about his turmoil at the time helps understand this piece.
I started working on this piece a long time ago, ten years if not more, and every couple of years I returned to it. It is not very challenging technically, at least there are no super-hard passages, but it is very difficult for me rhythmically and emotionally. Carl Czerny (he was Beethoven's student) has said that Beethoven heard the theme of this piece in the sound of a horseman galloping past his window. And indeed, this galloping rhythm (ta-ta-ta-TA-ta-ta) keeps going from the first measure to the last and acts as a perpettuum mobile which underpins all emotional content. When a true master plays it, this pulse remains steady from beginning to end (and besides it is played one and a half times faster than I do it). My horse cannot yet do that, it keeps switching to trot then back to gallop, and it does break up the overall impression. But I do think that the piano itself sounds very nice here, and I also hope you can see how much fun I am having (I even started singing at one point, but quickly stopped...):
One of the big projects I worked on in the past few years was to study the Pathetique sonata #8, this remains the largest work that I can play from memory from beginning to end - technically some passages remain a stretch (even though I hear that it is one of his easier sonatas), but I'm no longer ashamed of the result. This recording will, however, have to wait a bit...
Beethoven was and remains one of my favorite composers, I listen to him a lot and enjoy his music greatly, and I have vague hopes that in the future I may take on more of his legacy (perhaps, one day, one of the last sonatas, or the Heroica variations). One problem with him is that all the sonatas (except 19 and 20) are so huge, require astronomical investment of study time, and are not suited for casual playing, and he does not offer many small pieces (with the exception of the ubiquitous Elise...) - so these dreams are probably f or the more distant future.