Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his Piano Sonata no. 17, Op. 31 no. 2, between the years 1801 and 1802. It is a work in three movements, in the key of D minor, and it is usually called by its nickname 'The Tempest' (Der Sturm). This name, though, does not come from Beethoven himself, nor was the sonata referred to as such during his lifetime. Instead, it comes from a claim by his associate Anton Schindler that the sonata was inspired by the homonymous Shakespeare play. Much of Schindler's information is distrusted by scholars. A standard performance of the piece takes approximately twenty-five minutes.
