Joseph Haydn

Piano Sonata in g minor Hob. XVI:44

Haydn’s Sonata in g minor stems from the time between the late 1760s and the early 1770s, when the composer was music director at the Esterházy court. The time and circumstances of its genesis cannot be determined more exactly. The source situation is also not ideal: neither an autograph nor an authorised first edition are known, so the Urtext edition is therefore based on four contemporary copies of the sonata. Nevertheless, the musical score does not pose any open questions, and even all these uncertainties do not undermine the popularity of this two-movement sonata. The defiant and melancholy first movement is followed by a minuet-like Allegro, which brightens up at the end into an affable major key, and thus cheerfully concludes the sonata. The Urtext single edition on the basis of the Haydn Complete Edition and ergonomic fingering by Claudius Tanski invite you to rediscover this gem of a sonata.

Remarks by Silke Schloen, Fingering by Claudius Tanski