Top 7 Most-Viewed Piano Sonata Videos on YouTube

YouTube is full of brilliant performances of all kinds of piano sonatas. A few of those brilliant performances have garnered millions and millions of views.

Today, we’re looking at which seven piano sonata videos are the most popular as of early 2026.

Find out which composer is over-represented on the list, which creators managed to snag tens of millions of views apiece, and which 2005 performance by a legendary pianist is still racking up views today.

And of course, stick around to watch the most popular piano sonata video on YouTube, which currently boasts a jaw-dropping 66 million views.

Grand piano

Here are the top seven piano sonata performances in reverse countdown order:

7. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23, “Appassionata”, Movement 3 by Valentina Lisitsa

7.3 million views

Pianist Valentina Lisitsa began uploading videos to YouTube in 2007. She was one of the first virtuoso pianists to upload entire performances of popular classical repertoire.

Her popularity skyrocketed. By mid-2012, her videos had accumulated over 50 million views.

She signed with Decca in early 2012, making her one of the first classical musicians to jumpstart her recording career on YouTube.

This performance was uploaded in January 2009. It’s from a rehearsal run-through before a concert in Vienna.

Beethoven’s Appassionata sonata was written between 1804 and 1805, the years immediately after he began accepting that he was going deaf. The storminess engendered by the realisation is brilliantly portrayed in this fiery finale.

6. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17, “Tempest”, Movement 3 by Valentina Lisitsa

8.3 million views

This video from 2014 features the finale of Beethoven’s Tempest sonata as shot from an unusual perspective: Valentina Lisitsa’s neckline, where the pianist attached a camera to capture what her playing looks like from her point of view.

This particular performance dates from April 2014. It was filmed during a pre-concert rehearsal in the Spanish city of Torroella de Montgri.

Christian Horneman: Ludwig van Beethoven, 1803 (Beethovenhaus Bonn)

Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata was composed between 1801 and 1802. In 1802, Beethoven famously wrote his tragic Heiligenstadt Testament, a document discussing the impact of his hearing loss and depression. It was a cross between a suicide note and a cry for help.

That depth of emotion found its way into his Tempest Sonata.

5. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8, “Pathétique”, by Daniel Barenboim

9 million views

Surprise: there’s another Beethoven sonata on the list!

This time, it’s the entirety of his eighth piano sonata as performed by Argentinian pianist Daniel Barenboim.

This particular performance was recorded in Berlin in 2005. Over the course of three weeks and eight concerts, Barenboim filmed and recorded all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas.

Beethoven’s Eighth Sonata, nicknamed the Pathétique, was written in 1799. It was published when he was 28 and was an immediate hit, helping to establish his reputation as a pianist and composer in Vienna.

4. Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 16, Movement 1 by Rousseau

11 million views

Here’s the first non-Beethoven work on this list!

Mozart’s sixteenth piano sonata is in C-major and described in Mozart’s catalogue as being “for beginners” (although “for intermediate students” might be a more accurate descriptor).

It was written in 1788. We know very little about its history, besides the fact that over the generations, it has become a rite of passage for most young or amateur pianists.

Its pedagogical popularity makes its place on this list make sense. Of course, pianists are going to want to hear a professional performance of the work as they work on it themselves.

All the better if said performance includes a graphic version of the score, as in this video by YouTube creator Rousseau, who has garnered hundreds of millions of views for their unique performance videos.

The visuals help a beginner pianist see not only what this sonata looks like played, but how the score is structured, all packaged in a visually attractive video.

3. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17, “Tempest”, Movement 3 by Rousseau

15 million views

Here’s a mix of a pianist and a piece we’ve seen before: the third movement of Beethoven’s Tempest sonata, this time played by Rousseau.

In this video, viewers can study the lines of the sonata in colourful notation, as well as a top-down view of the pianist’s fingers.

However, unlike in Lisitsa’s video, we never see the pianist from the side.

No matter whose version you like best, there’s one takeaway we can all agree on: the Tempest sonata is very popular with YouTube viewers!

2. Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14, “Moonlight”, Movement 1

45 million views

Here’s yet another video from creator Rousseau. This time it’s a performance of the first movement of Beethoven’s legendary fourteenth piano sonata, colloquially known as the “Moonlight.”

The movement’s rhythmic repetition – many have likened it to a funeral march – makes this a particularly intriguing graphic score to follow.

In the end, though, the most popular piano sonata video on YouTube isn’t the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata…