The Piano Sonata no. 1 in C Major, Op. 1 of Johannes Brahms was written in Hamburg in 1853, and published later that year. Despite being his first published work, he had actually composed his second piano sonata first, but chose this work to be his first opus because he felt that it was of higher quality. The piece was sent along with his second sonata to Breitkopf und Härtel with a letter of recommendation from Robert Schumann. Schumann had already praised Brahms enthusiastically, and the sonata shows signs of an effort to impress.
