This piece was dedicated to Empress Alexiewna of Russia, to whom it was presented. Afterward,Beethoven was given fifty ducats, a substantial sum at the time for a single piano composition of modest length. But the gift to the Empress seems also have accounted for the payment made by her husband, Tsar Alexander I, of one-hundred-fifty ducats, more or less owed to Beethoven for 12 years for the three violin sonatas of Op. 30 (Nos. 6, 7 and 8), which were dedicated to the Russian ruler.
