Beethoven’s (1770-1827) piano sonatas have been called “The New Testament of Music,” (with Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, “The Old Testament”). B’s early Sonatas were highly influenced by those of Haydn and Mozart. With Sonata No. 12, he initiates the dramatic changes in depth and range of emotional expression and demands of the performer’s piano technique that pervaded music of the 19th cent. Romantic Period. Glenn Gould was one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century. Listeners regarded his interpretations as ranging from brilliantly creative to outright eccentric. Gould notes that in B’s early works, such as these Sonatas, B’s “senses of structure, fantasy, variety, thematic continuity, harmonic propulsion, and contrapuntal discipline were absolutely miraculously in alignment.”