DANIEL TONG is a pianist who performs, records and teaches. He is Head of Piano in Chamber Music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Head of Performance at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music.

List of figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The performer-analyst
Music revealed in time

1. The Op. 12 Sonatas: Humour and Innovation
Sonata in D, Op. 12 No. 1. Allegro
Performing an analysis
'Final' presentation of reading
Op. 12 No. 1, variations
Op. 12 No. 1, finale
Sonata in E¿, Op. 12 No. 3. A piano concerto in the making
Adagio con molta espressione
Allegro molto

2. A Case study in the comic: Sonata in A, Op. 12 No. 2
Meaning and authenticity
A laughing Beethoven?
Is wit comedy? Is comedy funny?
Notions of humour and comedy
The contemporary pianist-comedian
The comic within Op. 12 No. 2
Mapping the 'material' trace
A final reading of the opening Allegro Vivace from Beethoven's Op. 12 No. 2
Opera Buffa and the Andante from Op. 12 No. 2

3. Separated at Birth. Sibling Sonatas: Opp. 23 and 24
Op. 23: The Black Sheep of the Family
Beethoven, 'the most virile of all musicians'
'Gender Trouble' in Op. 23
Op. 23, Allegro Molto. An anti-finale
Opp. 23 and 24: A single opus?
Coda

4. Man and artist. The Op. 30 Sonatas
1802: Anxiety and the Heiligenstadt Testament
Disability in music
'Middle period' Beethoven
Sonata in A Major, Op. 30 No. 1. Late music from a young man
A Narrative of disability lived
The Original finale: Disability overcome
Sonata in C Minor, Op. 30 No. 2. Revolutionary fever and despair
Sonata in G, Op. 30 No. 3. Visionary escapism

5. Sonata in A (Minor?), Op. 47
A hybrid sonata
In the style of a concerto?
Presto. Brilliance and bravado
'The commonplace variations'

6. Sonata in G, Op. 96. Fantasy and arabesque
Divining the messages within the score
Pierre Rode, Archduke Rudolph and the Immortal Beloved
Signs, games and messages
A correspondence through the score
A poet's love
Romanticism, Schlegel and the arabesque
The allure of late style

Afterword
Select Bibliography