Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 01/01/2007, uploaded on 09/14/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Haydn’s Sonata in A major for keyboard was composed around 1776. Cast in the usual three movements typical of the period, each movement passes to the next without pause. The first movement is a well-rounded Classical era sonata form. Much of the movement has a nimble character about it, evidenced by the choice of 2/4 meter over cut-time and the brisk turn-like figure of the principal theme. However, the overall lightness of the movement is balanced by a few instances of orchestral influenced writing. Occurring at the end of each statement of the movement’s first theme and at the end of the exposition are two passages that are unmistakably meant to imitate a martial trumpet fanfare.

Coming to a close on the dominant in A major, the first movement leads directly into the Adagio middle movement. This brief movement of only twenty-one measures presents a single lyrical melody accompanied by broken chords in the left hand. Beginning in F-sharp minor, it closes in the key of E major preparing the way for the finale. Marked Tempo di Menuetto, the finale begins quite simply with a sixteen-measure theme accompanied only by its bass. The uncomplicated nature of this theme makes it a perfect subject of variations. Six variations follow in which the presentation of the theme becomes gradually more and more complex. Some, like the first and fifth variations, present florid forms of the theme; others, like the second and third variations, subject the theme to some contrapuntal treatment. The final variation, while still embellishing the theme, returns to a more or less direct statement. One nearly expects more variations to follow, but a sudden final cadence at the end of the sixth variation concludes the sonata.     Joseph DuBose

Sonata in A Major Hob. XVI:30       Franz Joseph Haydn

Allegro-Adagio
Temp di Minuetto (cantabile) -- Variation I bis Variation VI

This sonata was published in 1776.  "The mood of this work ranges from delicately playful to a "military horn" treatment.  The formal structure is quite surprising, with an opening Allegro leading through chromatic modulation directly into a short Adagio of orchestral character, the third movement being a Tempo di Minuetto with six variations"   Jens Markowsky