Piano Sonata in B Minor, S. 178

The Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178 is a piano solo work by the Hungarian master Franz Liszt, composed in Weimer between 1852 and 1853. The piece, however, was premiered only 5 years later, in Berlin, by the famous pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow. Contrary to the most playful and peaceful works in Liszt’s repertoire, such as Rhapsodies hongroises, the Piano Sonata in B minor is built around a strong thematic opposition (underlined by its form of the “two themed sonata”) that requires the pianist to have a complete mastery of the instrument. For these reasons, the Piano Sonata in B minor has earned a place as one of the major pieces by Liszt, alongside his Douze études d’exécution transcendante and the cycle Années de pèlerinage. It is thus unsurprising that Richard Strauss reacted positively to the work: “If Liszt had written only this Sonata in B minor, a gigantic work from a single cell, it would have been enough to demonstrate the strength of his mind.”