The influence of Beethoven's 'Appassionata' Sonata on this sonata is evident from the choice of keys for each movement (F minor – D-flat major – F minor), the common chord at the end of the second movement and the beginning of the third, and the transitional passage placed in the latter half of the third movement. Although there are weaknesses in compositional technique, such as in the motivic development within the development sections of the first and third movements, it is nonetheless clear that Norbert was a musician with a unique individuality, even when compared to figures like Weber, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann.

Friedrich August Burgmüller (1760–1824), father of the Burgmüller brothers, served as the municipal music director in Düsseldorf from 1812 until the year before his death. (He had also served as music director of the National Theater in Bonn from 1789–90, where Beethoven played viola as a member of the orchestra.) Upon his father's death, the Burgmüller family appears to have faced financial hardship. A turning point likely occurred in 1826 when the 'Lower Rhine Music Festival', founded by their father, was held in Düsseldorf, with Spohr and Ries serving as directors. In that year, the elder brother, Friedrich, published his Rondo Op. 1. It is said that Ries mediated with the publisher for this work. (It seems that a score for an overture for orchestra, composed in 1825, remains from his earlier works.) The younger brother, Norbert, also began studying with Spohr and his pupil Moritz Hauptmann in Kassel from that year. This sonata is thought to have been written around that time.

Having honed his skills under Spohr and Hauptmann, Norbert debuted as a composer and pianist on January 14, 1830, performing his own Piano Concerto Op. 1 with himself at the piano and Spohr conducting. It is worth noting that the second edition (1867) of the music dictionary 'Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique', compiled by composer and musicologist François-Joseph Fétis (1784–1871), contains an entry for Friedrich (listed as Frédéric in the dictionary, in the French style). This entry states that he studied composition with Spohr in Kassel from 1829 (sic) and debuted as a composer and pianist on January 14, 1830, by performing his own piano concerto. This indicates that confusion between the brothers was already occurring during Friedrich's lifetime.