Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 28, Op. 101, was written in 1816 and dedicated to Baroness and pianist Dorotea Ertmann. It runs for about 20 minutes and consists of four movements. This work begins the series of Beethoven's "Late Period" sonatas, when his music moved in a new direction toward a more personal, more intimate, sometimes even an introspective, realm of freedom and fantasy. In this period he had achieved a complete mastery of form, texture and tonality and was subverting the very conventions he had mastered to create works of remarkable profundity and beauty. It is also characteristic of these late works to incorporate contrapuntal techniques into the sonata form.
