Joseph Haydn

Among Joseph Haydns extensive oeuvre is an almost inexhaustible stock of piano sonatas. With altogether over 50 works, they form a significant segment of his overall output. One of this composers great achievements is that in these sonatas as in many other genres, such as the symphonies and string quartets Haydn bridges discrepant stylistic eras, and lays the founding stone for the classical piano sonata.

Next to 25 complete sonatas in the Appendix, Volume I also contains five single pieces (that had perhaps once been planned as sonatas), and the beginnings of seven lost sonatas.
A first group of nine sonatas, which was no doubt intended for the more proficient student, was likely written in the 1750s, when Haydn was still eking out a living as chamber servant to the composer Nicola Porpora, or as a freelance artist.
Several of these pieces cannot be entirely authenticated without the shadow of a doubt.
A second group, also consisting of nine works, albeit considerably easier little sonatas, leads us into the 1760s.
The last group of sonatas in the book comprises seven sonatas which Haydn composed between 1765 and 1772, thus already during his time of employment as Prince Esterhzys Kapellmeister. They are finest Haydn, full of surprise effects and pianistic refinements.

Joseph Haydn

Georg Feder (Editor)

26 Pianists* (Fingering)

Armin Raab (Preface)

Silke Schloen (Critical Report)

55 Sonatas, 55 Pianists Edition in 3 volumes: HN 1336 (Volume I), HN 1338 (Volume II), HN 1340 (Volume III)

55 internationally celebrated pianists were invited to adopt one Haydn piano sonata each and provide it with their personal fingerings a whos who on the contemporary piano scene. G. Henle Publishers now presents this classic, revised and with a new look, to all pianists in the certainty that Haydns sonatas will further cement their place in the world of music. Volume I contains Haydns early sonatas, very much still born of the spirit of the early Classical period: catchy music, fun to play, often at a moderate level of difficulty, without which modern piano instruction would be nearly unthinkable. Time and again, the authenticity of individual sonatas from this group has been questioned the preface by Armin Raab, the Scholarly Director of the Joseph Haydn Institute, now provides comprehensive information on new findings regarding this important topic area.

*Fingering:
Klaus Schilde (Hob. XVI:1 C major)
Sylvia Hewig-Trscher (Hob. XVI:2 B flat major)
Michael Schneidt (Hob. XVI:3 C major)
Sophie Pacini (Hob. XVI:4 D major)
Jan Philip Schulze (Hob. XVI:5 A major)
Valentina Lisitsa (Hob. XVI:6 G major)
Yaara Tal (Hob. XVI:7 C major)
Markus Bellheim (Hob. XVI:8 G major)
Carmen Piazzini (Hob. XVI:9 F major)
Jacob Leuschner (Hob. XVI:10 C major)
Silke Avenhaus (Hob. XVI:11 G major)
Benjamin Moser (Hob. XVI:12 A major)
Emanuel Ax (Hob. XVI:13 E major)
Sa Chen (Hob. XVI:14 D major)
Andreas Boyde (Hob. XVI:16 E flat major)
Christine Schornsheim (Hob. XVI:18 B flat major)
Cyprien Katsaris (Hob. XVI:19 D major)
Claudius Tanski (Hob. XVI:44 g minor)
William Youn (Hob. XVI:45 E flat major)
Gerhard Oppitz (Hob. XVI:46 A flat major)
Michael Schfer (Hob. XVI:47bis e minor)
Christian Rieger (Hob. XVI:5a D major)
Dirk Mommertz (Hob. XVII:D1 D major)
Sunwook Kim (Hob. XVI:Es2 E flat major)
ric Le Sage (Hob. XVI:Es3 E flat major)
Rolf Koenen (Hob. XVI:G1 G major)