Noctave
The piece
This rondo's nickname comes from a German title about rage over a lost penny; it appears on the manuscript, but not in Beethoven's hand. The work was in fact only published in 1828, after the composer's death. It follows the rondo principle: a quick, bouncing theme in 2/4 keeps coming back, but in shifting and sometimes distant keys, through abrupt modulations that give the piece its capricious mood.
More than six and a half minutes at a tempo of 144, and 473 bars: stamina is the first difficulty. The theme is made of fast, bouncing notes; keep your fingers close to the keys and your wrist free so you do not tire. The octaves (319, shared between the hands) often come in runs and call for a supple wrist rather than a stiff arm. In the right-hand runs, which reach nearly ten notes per second in the tightest stretches, a fixed fingering prevents slips. Finally, the key signature changes several times, from G major to B-flat and then E major: check it at each new section, as the accidentals follow.