Piano Sonata c minor Hob. XVI:20

Haydn’s c-minor Sonata is shot through by a passionate, dark, at times sullen mood. It may be regarded as the Viennese classicist’s own “Appassionata” - a great triumph! It is almost inconceivable that its composition stretched over almost ten years, but this interval elapsed between Haydn’s sketch of 1771 and the 1780 first edition.

That Haydn himself regarded the sonata as unusual emerges from a letter to his publisher in which he describes it as the “longest and most difficult” of the six sonatas that were dedicated, in their printed edition, to the piano-playing Auenbrugger sisters. Our reasonably-priced single Urtext edition, with fingering by Haydn expert Paul Lewis, is based on Henle’s three-volume Complete Edition of all of Haydn’s piano sonatas.