The sonata op. 101 had an unusually long gestation. Beethoven’s earliest sketches date from 1815. The first publication of the “difficult to execute Sonata in A“, as the composer called it, appeared in 1817. Beethoven’s nationalistic feelings during this period led him to seek German substitutes for traditional Italian musical terminology. The autograph of op. 101 is inconsistent in this respect, the outer movements having markings in Italian, and the central march in German. The first edition u...