i. Allegro
ii. Adagio
iii. Finale. Presto
Composed in 1794, this is the last and most imposing of Haydn’s piano sonatas. Donald Francis Tovey (who devoted the first five pages of his essay on the work to an analysis of the first twelve bars) wrote that ‘neither Haydn nor Mozart succeeded in writing many mature pianoforte solo of such importance as this sonata’. Haydn wrote it in London for one of the capital’s finest pianists, Therese Jansen. He conceived on a grand scale, but was also daringly original – even by his own standards. from the thick, almost orchestral sound of the opening chords of the large sonata for first movement. The slow movement is in the remotest possible key – E major – and it is a rich, hymn-like piece which is derived almost entirely from the figure heard in its first bar. The finale begins with a series of repeated Gs from which the main theme stutters into life, and the harmonies return to the work’s home key of E flat – a brilliant shock tactic from Haydn who proceeds to transform the start of the main theme into the movement’s main accompaniment figure, and to drive towards an exciting close.