The piano sonata #27 by Beethoven is a two-movement work, and each movement is prefaced by tempo indications in German instead of Italian. The tempo indications had traditionally been given in Italian because the first large music publishers happened to be in Venice, Italy. Beethoven was serious about his music and serious about how he valued German music, hence his break with tradition for the sake of German art.
The first movement is restless, and the second is wonderfully peaceful. Beethoven was a composer of contrasts, and these two movements contrast each other very much.
And it is interesting to note that the second movement is longer than the first, almost twice as long. Is the second movement a wish-fulfillment on the part of Beethoven, a man who had many conflicts, illness and stress in his life, that he could have double the peace and calm in his life as he had stress? Recent scholarship has shown that for much of Beethoven’s life, especially the final decade, he was an ill man. Add to that his deafness, and the will to not only go on living but to grow as an artist must have taken every ounce of strength and determination he could muster.
Here is a recording of this second movement as performed by the late Wilhelm Kempff: