Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 01/01/2007, uploaded on 09/18/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Over his entire career, Haydn composed a staggering sixty-two sonatas for the piano. Haydn is often considered more innovative as a composer than his contemporary Mozart and this is quite evident in his last piano sonata. Even for Haydn, the harmonic exploration of the Sonata in E-flat major is unusual. Composed in 1794, the published edition is dedicated to a certain Magdalena von Kurzbeck. However, Haydn’s autograph score is dedicated to Therese Jansen, a remarkable piano virtuoso whom he had met during his travels to London during the 1790s. Jansen was also the recipient of another piano sonata and three piano trios.

The first movement, a masterfully crafted sonata form in E-flat, opens with a majestic theme over full-voiced chords in the low register of the piano. With such an opening, one can almost imagine this sonata as a fitting prelude to the revolutionary sonatas of Beethoven that lay just over the horizon. Chromaticism is thrust to the fore from the outset and is a feature constantly explored throughout the piece. A second theme, in the usual key of the dominant, follows with both hands in the upper register giving it a sort of “music box” quality. The development begins in the foreign key of C major but an even greater harmonic leap is made when the second theme later returns in the key E major. A masterful return is made to the tonic key via an enharmonic modulation and the recapitulation commences.

Returning to the distant key of E major, the middle Adagio begins with an elaborate melody divided into two sections with each repeated. Though its first section remains firmly rooted in the tonic key, its latter half briefly moves through the key of C major, reemphasizing the harmonic explorations of the first movement. Structured as a large ternary form, the middle section is less melodic than the opening, adopting a more fantasia-like character. An embellished return of the opening and a brief coda round-out the movement.

The energetic Presto finale begins with a tune that seems at first unable to get underway. Twice it starts up, first in the tonic key of E-flat and then a step higher in F minor, each coming to a halt on a pause. On its third attempt, it finally breaks free into a florid run over alternating tonic and dominant harmonies. Chromaticism is once again a prominent feature of the movement, though this time its use is entirely humorous. Instead of the usual rondo structure, the finale is written as a full-fledged sonata form.       Joseph DuBose

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Sonata in E-flat Major, Hob XVI: 52        Franz Joseph Haydn

Allegro -- Adagio -- Finale: Presto

The Sonata in E flat major Hob.XVI:52 of 1794 (published in 1798) is Joseph Haydn's last work for piano.  Haydn wrote it at about the same time as his London Symphonies and it shares their intellectual energy, impressing the listener with the formal variety.  None of its three movements is subordinate to the others.  In the opening Allegro, Haydn expertly juggles with the tone colors of the themes: the first heroic, the second elusive and bell-like.  The pathos-laden Adagio is then strikingly distinguished from the E flat context by its rather unusual key of E major.  Rich in harmonic surprises and full of elan, the Presto finale could just as well have been the closing movement of one of the London Symphonies.      Jens Markowsky.