The solo-sonata for piano (or pianoforte, initially) was developed in the course of the 17th century, receiving its first stable form in the hands of CPE Bach and Joseph Haydn. After that, it was for more than 150 years one of the major forms of piano music. The piano sonata offers a frame for working with contrasting musical ideas and is often (but not always) divided into several movements. However, the theoretical concept of the piano sonata as in three or four movements (fast movement in sonata form, slow movement, optional scherzo and again a fast movement) is a later idealization.
Also note that the term "sonata form" does not refer to the sonata as such, but to the way the first movement (the largest and most weighty part of the total sonata) is developed. Sonata form (also called first movement form or sonata-allegro form) developed in the 1730s and was born out of the need for contrast and repetition. It is usually in three sections called exposition, development and recapitulation. In the exposition the composer shows us the melodic material he will be working with, usually divided in a first subject group (in the home key) and a second subject group (contrasting mood - usually more lyrical - , different key). In the development he plays around with his material in a dramatic way, and in the recapitulation, he gives literally a "recap," usually a shortened version of the exposition, now with everything in the home key.
The piano sonata as a genre reached its full flowering in the years between the 1770s and the 1820s. Not only were Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven as major classical composers active in the genre, other composers wrote countless piano sonatas as well.
The rest of the 19th century saw a diminishing importance of the sonata. In the first place, because Beethoven had exhausted the development of the genre for many decades to go, in the second place because the then popular piano virtuosi preferred easier music such as opera potpourris, and also because the piano became an instrument for making music at home, where shorter and simpler pieces were more popular. Although classicism was continued in the Romantic period by such composers as Schumann and Brahms, they only wrote piano sonatas in their youth. The greatest sonata from this period was the comprehensive "three movements in one" Sonata in B minor by Liszt (drawing on the concept of thematic transformation first introduced by Schubert in his Wanderer Fantasie of 1822), which pointed the way to the 20th century. Both strands in fact came together in the large-scale sonatas written by various composers in the last decades of the century.
P.S. I make a difference between piano music and harpsichord music and only include the first. The harpsichord is basically a different instrument, because, where the piano can play both loud and soft (as its name, "piano-forte" indicates), the harpsichord - like the organ - always has the same volume.
[Earliest French Grand Piano from 1781 - Photo Wikipedia]
1. Carl Philip Emanuel Bach, Piano Sonata in G minor Wq 65/17 H47 (1746)
One of the three musical sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, C.P.E. Bach was one of the greatest keyboard composers of the 18th c. He produced some 150 sonatas and many shorter pieces, and made a clear distinction between the harpsichord and the pianoforte, living exactly at the time when the one instrument was being replaced by the other. As a performer, C.P.E. Bach was known for the intensity of his performances, which is evident from the slow movements of his sonatas, which are often quirky and unconventional. The Sonata in G minor starts with an explosive opening and the whole sonata is filled with eloquent declamatory flourishes. It covers the gamut of emotions, now expressed through lilting melodies, then again through free toccata style improvisation. This is truly "Sturm und Drang" - we can even hear in it the stirrings of a later Romantic imagination. Although played on the piano in the recording I listened to, Pletnev proves to be a very sensitive performer, making use of the piano's flexibility of tone sought after by C.P.E. Bach (whose preferred instrument was the clavichord, as its dynamics could be controlled by touch - the strings were struck like those of the piano), and playing with taste and virtuosity, always in the spirit of the composer.
[Recording listened to: Mikhail Pletnev on Deutsche Grammophon]
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457 (1784)
As a performer Mozart was the first exponent of the then relatively new pianoforte. As a composer for the instrument, he loathed empty virtuosity - his solo piano works are all surprisingly simple. He wrote his first sonatas in 1774, inspired by Haydn, and would compose in total 18 piano sonatas. The later sonatas are melodically richer than the early ones, but all combine spareness and soberness with charm and elegance. Mozart's grandest solo work is the Sonata No 14 in C Minor, dedicated to Therese von Trattner, one of Mozart's pupils in Vienna. It is one of only two sonatas Mozart wrote in the minor key - he was extremely deliberate in choosing tonalities for his compositions and his choice of C minor for this sonata implies that it may have been a very personal work. The sonata begins with an ascending arpeggio figure, softly answered. The slow movement is an ornamented aria. The closing movement is full of drama again, with grit beneath the filigree surface. This sonata has been said to surpass all others by Mozart in its fire and passion, foreshadowing the piano music of Beethoven - it shares a similar overall plan with Beethoven's later "Pathétique" sonata. Seven months after completing the sonata, Mozart wrote a Fantasia that, thematically related to it, was meant to be played as an introduction to the sonata - it is usually recorded together with it. It is an intense work which shows us something of Mozart as a piano improviser.
[Recording listened to: Maria Joao Pires on Deutsche Grammophon]
3. Joseph Haydn, Piano Sonata in E-flat major, Hob. XVI/52, L. 62 (1794)
In all, Haydn wrote 51 sonatas for the piano and several other short pieces. However, most of these were written in his early years - he was not a pianist, and, as his career developed, he lost interest in the genre. He only wrote three sonatas in the last twenty years of his life. Haydn's piano music was strongly influenced by C.P.E. Bach; it possesses great expressiveness and occasional whimsicality. Haydn's piano sonatas also show a great deal of experimentation. The Sonata in E Flat, one of Haydn's three last sonatas, forms the peak of his achievements in the field of the piano. From the 1780s on, in the piano music of both Haydn and Mozart, we find two innovations: the heavy use of dynamics - often leading to orchestral timbres - , combined with the relaxed opera buffa style (a vocal articulation of phrases in the manner of operatic style). Although the pure sonata form was much rarer in the classical period than is often thought today, in the first movement of this sonata Haydn does indeed approach the mold of the sonata form: the first theme of the opening Allegro has an affirmative, powerful character and the second theme, in the upper register, is light and spirited. The second movement is an Adagio and the last movement a Presto. The sonata is quite expansive and full of unusual harmonies. Haydn wrote it for Therese Jansen, an outstanding pianist who lived in London at the time of Haydn's visits there in the 1790s (Haydn also dedicated the sonatas 50 and 51 to her, as well as three piano trios).
[Recording listened to: Christine Schornsheim on Capriccio - all Haydn sonatas on authentic instruments]
4. Jan Ladislav Dussek, Piano Sonata in A flat major "Le retour à Paris" Op. 64 (C. 221) (1807)
Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812) was a Bohemian composer, whose piano sonatas belong to the most forward-looking compositions for the instrument at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century. The present sonata is Dussek's longest and perhaps best one. "Le retour á Paris" was composed in 1807, when Dussek returned to the French capital, where he resided until his death. Before that, Dussek had lived in England where - like Clementi and Field - he contributed to the development of a distinct "London" school of pianoforte composition. He also took advantage of the fact that English-manufactured pianofortes (such as the sonorous Broadwood grand) were more powerful and had a greater range. In all, Dussek composed 34 piano sonatas. Despite the technical challenges, virtuosity is never an object in itself. The opening movement of the present sonata is characterized by exotic harmonic coloring; this is followed by a luxuriant Molto adagio; next comes a restless and whimsical minuet; and the sonata is closed by a finale steeped in polka rhythms.
[Recording listened to: Andreas Staier on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi]
5. Carl Maria von Weber, Piano Sonata No 3 in D minor Op 49 (1816)
Weber was a fine pianist and central to his pianistic oeuvre are his four sonatas. Often regarded as the first truly Romantic sonatas, they had a great influence on subsequent composers as Mendelssohn and Schumann. All are large scale and virtuosic. Weber infused the classical sonata form with his own lyrical and dramatic, sometimes even theatrical, elements. The Piano Sonata No 3 in D minor was considered as "demonic" by Weber's contemporaries, and it is indeed his darkest sonata. It is a sonata full of orchestral sonorities and textures, and it also makes much use of counterpoint. Weber wrote it in just twenty days of feverish inspiration.
[Recording listened to: Alexander Paley on Naxos]
6. Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Piano Sonata No. 5 in F-sharp minor, Op. 81 (1819)
Hummel was one of the greatest pianists of his day, who as a direct pupil of Mozart carried the pianistic style of his great teacher into the 19th century. Hummel not only wrote a series of piano concertos, he also composed nine piano sonatas. The most radical of these is the fifth one in F sharp minor. Considered one of Hummel’s greatest works in his lifetime, this sonata is a highly demanding work to play. The initial Allegro starts with a roller-coaster ride full of cascading notes, built on an angular main theme. The movement is full of contrasts and surprises, sudden stops and starts. The Largo con molto espressione is demanding in its melting gentleness, anticipating Chopin's Nocturnes, and the Finale is a thrilling, wild Slavonic dance, technically very demanding. In this sonata, Hummel fully embraces the Romantic movement.
[Recording listened to: Stephen Hough on Hyperion]
7. Muzio Clementi, Piano Sonata in G minor, Op 50 No. 3 "Didone Abbandonata" (1821)
Clementi was not only a performer and composer, but also a teacher (most notably of John Field, inventor of the Nocturne) and a maker of fortepianos. He lived much of his life in London, but also traveled extensively throughout Europe. Clementi composed over one hundred piano sonatas. He inaugurated the three-movement structure, and also in his use of thematic development anticipated Beethoven's piano writing - in fact, Clementi was highly regarded by Beethoven. Clementi's early sonatas are rather light in character, but especially after the advent of the mature piano, his style changes and even foreshadows the music of Chopin. Clementi's last set of sonatas, Op 50, was composed in 1821. The final sonata of this set has the subtitle "Didone abbandonata," the only sonata to which Clementi applied a programmatic title. Queen Dido, left by the hero Aeneas, was a popular 18th c. opera subject. The first movement is indeed a very operatic tragic scene, expressing the feelings of Dido at the parting. The second movement is a rhapsodic Adagio dolente, and this leads directly into the final Allegro agitato, e con disperazione, the strongest movement of the piece. This sonata proves abundantly that Clementi could write fascinating music, and that he was much more than just a composer of educational pieces for piano students.
[Recording listened to: Howard Shelley on Hyperion]
8. Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 (1822)
Beethoven's 32nd and last piano sonata contains only two movements. The first movement is stormy and impassioned, as is usual for Beethoven's music in C minor. The second movement is a monumental set of variations on a beguilingly simple arietta melody. In Thomas Mann's
Doctor Faustus, a novel much engaged with music, the question is raised why Beethoven didn't write a third movement, and the answer given is that the second movement has, as the
Rough Guide to Classical Music paraphrases it, "effectively nailed the sonata form into its coffin." As the selection of sonatas in this post will show, that was not wholly true, although with Beethoven the development of the sonata form had indeed reached its limit for a long time (as had the string quartet). One could also more simply state that the balance between the two movements is such that it obviates the need for a third one. But it is true that these final "variations take us on a journey that ends in transfigured calm" (liner notes by Richard Osborne). The pianist Robert Taub has called the present sonata "a work of unmatched drama and transcendence ... the triumph of order over chaos, of optimism over anguish." Its two movements contrast on all levels: C minor vs. C major; Sturm und Drang vs. profound serenity; anguished diminished harmonies vs. tonic, dominant, and relative minor harmonies; a 4-meter vs. triple meter. There was no expressive need for Beethoven to compose any additional sonatas - Sonata Op. 111 is the apotheosis of Beethoven's music for the piano.
[Recording listened to: Maurizio Pollini on DG (The Late Piano Sonatas)]
9. Franz Schubert, Piano Sonata No. 20 in A major, D. 959 (1828)
This is Schubert's penultimate piano sonata, the middle panel of the triptych of his final sonatas, written about three months before his death at the age of 31 in September 1828. Schubert numbered the three sonatas sequentially, perhaps envisioning them as a cycle. After his death, Schubert’s brother sold the manuscript to the publisher Diabelli, but the sonatas were not actually published until 1839. In fact, during the whole 19th c. Schubert's piano music was neglected; that would change completely by the late 20th c., when Schubert's late sonatas were considered among the most important of the composer's mature masterpieces. They are now part of the core piano repertoire. One reason for the former neglect is that Schubert's sonatas were seen as structurally inferior to those of Beethoven. Musical analysis has however brought a mature, individual style to light, that makes use of such features as a cyclical formal and tonal design, chamber music textures, and a rare depth of emotional expression. In fact, Schubert has developed a new type of sonata form, different from that of Beethoven. The sonata in A major is in four movements, with a Scherzo in third position. The whole sonata is pervaded by a deep pessimism. The structure of the work seems to circle around its subjects without being able to come to rest, as if the conventional perception of linear time is suspended (
Rough Guide to Classical Music). The sparse, lamenting Andantino is built on a melody that returns again and again to the same single note, until it is interrupted by a terrifying outburst in which no melody can be found.
[Recording listened to: Andreas Schiff on Decca]
10. Robert Schumann, Piano Sonata No. 1 in F sharp minor "Grosse Sonate," Op 11 (1835)
This is an early work in Schumann's output, written when the composer was 23 years old - he had just begun his romance with the virtuoso pianist Clara Wieck, who would become his wife in 1840. The sonata, written by Schumann under his double nicknames Florestan and Eusebius (representing respectively the more turbulent and reflective sides of his character), was dedicated to Clara Wieck, but as her father forbade all contact with Schumann (not surprisingly as Clara was still a teenager), she could not openly acknowledge its receipt. The sonata is cast in four movements. The first movement begins with a lengthy introduction, marked Un poco adagio, before a fiery theme takes over, based on a "fandango" idea, in fact going back to a piece Schumann wrote in 1832; he mixes his own music here rather symbolically with music written by Clara Wieck, "Scène fantastique: Le ballet des revenants." The brief Aria is a song of great passion. The ensuing Scherzo works suitably quirky, but at its center stands a stately intermezzo. The finale is a rondo that alternates between the restless and the contemplative, between Florestan and Eusebius so to speak, before leading to a triumphant conclusion. In his own time Schumann was criticized for his mixing of keys and the fact that exposition, development and recapitulation are becoming difficult to distinguish from each other, but today that is rather seen as progress in his music. Schumann was a true Romantic.
[Performance listened to: Murray Perahia on Sony Classical]
11. Frédéric Chopin, Piano Sonata No 3 in B minor, Op 58 (1844)
The last of Chopin’s three piano sonatas, written during the years of his full maturity as a composer. Chopin wrote the third sonata when he was spending a happy summer with George Sand at her country estate - a crucial time in their long love affair. In contrast to the previous "Sonata funèbre" (so named after the funeral march it contains) it conforms closer to the structure of a classical sonata. It consists of four movements: the first movement, the most important of the four, is a sonata allegro, the last is a rondo, and the middle movements take the form of a scherzo with trio and a large-scale instrumental song. The first movement, Allegro maestoso, starts with a distinctive martial theme and has the character of a ballade. In this movement, Chopin has combined the statement and development of his ideas with such perfect fluency, that the convention of recapitulating them became superfluous. The short Scherzo has a contrasting but melodically related central section. The slow movement is in fact a slow-treading, elegiac Nocturne in three-part form, which has been called one of Chopin's happiest inspirations. The finale, Presto non tanto, is a brilliant and forceful movement in which the opening theme returns as in a rondo. It has been said to prefigure Wagner's
Walkürenritt. The sonata closes with a magnificent coda. Liszt very much appreciated this sonata and played it to his pupils; the pianist and composer Kalkbrenner even sent his son to Paris so that he could study the sonata directly with its composer.
[Performance listened to: John Ogdon on MCA Classics]
12. Charles Valentin Alkan, Grande Sonate "Les quatre Âges de la vie," Op 33 (1847)
The French Romantic composer Alkan has been called "the Berlioz of the piano" - except some songs, chamber and organ music, his whole output was for that one instrument. Some of his music requires extreme technical virtuosity. But he only wrote one sonata, most of his music consists of small pieces like etudes, esquisses, etc. The present sonata is in four movements which, different from what was common in the classical sonata, become progressively slower. As the title of the sonata indicates, those four movements portray a human being at the ages of 20, 30, 40 and 50. The optimistic first movement, "20 ans," is of course played very fast, but it also marks the clumsiness of youth by sudden "wrong chords." This first movement is effectively a scherzo. The second movement "30 ans: Quasi-Faust" is the most substantial movement, a very extended sonata-form, and also the most difficult part of the entire sonata. This movement, a tone poem typifying the dual character of Faust, has to be played "satanically" and also contains a large fugue. "40 ans: Un heureux ménage" illustrates the happiness and peace of family life at middle-age and the meditations of a ripe human being. It is played "Lentement (slowly)." "50 ans: Prométhée enchaîné" (Prometheus Bound), played extremely slow, is dark and pessimistic in mood, and describes an aged person looking toward death. The sonata ends so to speak with the lugubrious defeat of Prometheus.
[Performance listened to: Marc-André Hamelin on Hyperion]
13. Franz Liszt, Sonata in B minor (1852-53)
A vast, three-movement work that is played without a break, after the model of Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy, a favorite work of Liszt's. While its distinct movements are rolled into one (there is a slow central section and also scherzo-like fugato), the entire work is encompassed within an overarching sonata form - exposition, development and recapitulation, factually creating "a sonata within a sonata." At this point in his life, Liszt's career as a traveling virtuoso had almost entirely subsided, and he was leaning towards the life of a composer while residing quietly in Weimar. The Sonata was dedicated to Robert Schumann, in return for Schumann's dedication of his
Fantasie in C major, Op. 17 (published 1839) to Liszt. Because of its technical difficulties and negative initial reception due to its status as "new" music, it took a long time for the sonata to become accepted as concert repertoire. Today, it is a popularly performed and extensively analyzed piece. The sonata unfolds in approximately 30 minutes of unbroken music, a single dramatic design that took Liszt long and careful work to achieve (he never attempted a second sonata). Liszt was very economical with his thematic material. The first page contains the three motivic ideas that provide the content, transformed throughout, for nearly all that follows. Rare for Liszt, the sonata is free of any program or external reference, although some critics have argued for relating the structure and content of the piece to Goethe’s
Faust (others have detected autobiographical elements in it), with characterizations of Faust, Mephisto and Gretchen. In that case, Liszt's Sonata may have been inspired by Alkan, whose sonata described above features a Faustian second movement. But this is all speculation. Liszt's Sonata was first performed in public in Berlin by Hans von Bülow, Liszt’s pupil and son-in-law. It not only exerted an important influence on Cesar Franck, but also on Scriabin and subsequent 20th c. music.
[Performance listened to: Leslie Howard on Hyperion]
14. Johannes Brahms, Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5 (1854)
All Brahms' three piano sonatas were written at the young age of twenty - Brahms carried them under his arm for his first historic interview with Robert Schumann, who was then an established composer and fearsome critic. The third sonata had then just been finished; the other two the year before. At a time that other composers were doing away with classical forms, Brahms makes the sonata form unashamedly the receptacle of his fecund ideas. Schumann called him a "a young eagle" and warned the public that the successor to Beethoven had finally arrived. Interestingly, Brahms never wrote another piano sonata and in fact his most beloved piano works are the later ballades, intermezzos and rhapsodies. The sonata is in five movements. The Allegro maestoso is remarkable for its great breadth and intensity. The second movement Andante progresses from intimate, yearning music to an even more hushed and intimate interlude, ending in a coda of great ecstasy. The rapturous stillness of this movement is abruptly broken by the Scherzo. The Intermezzo is called "Reminiscence" and indeed looks back at the love theme of the Andante - but with a sense of loss and desolation. The Finale starts with a quasi-improvisatory rumination, hesitant music which also provides the material for the ensuing Rondo. But gradually the material becomes stronger and "in the coda the bonds that have held the young eagle break and the final flight is to freedom" (as Emanual Ax puts it in the liner notes). Although classical in form, in its fierce Romanticism this sonata demonstrates a certain nearness to the New German School of Liszt c.s.
[Performance listened to: Emanuel Ax on Sony Classical]
15. Marie Jaëll, Piano Sonata (1871)
Marie (Trautmann) Jaëll (1846 – 1925) was a French (Alsace region) pianist, composer, and pedagogue, who - like other professional women from the 19th c. - has been unjustly forgotten. She composed works for piano, concertos and chamber music. She also was the first pianist to perform all the piano sonatas of Beethoven in Paris; and she played the complete piano music of Liszt at a series of concerts. She undertook scientific studies of hand techniques in piano playing and attempted to replace traditional drilling with systematic piano methods. Her piano teacher was Heinrich Herz and she became famous as a performer when she was only ten years. At age twenty, she married the pianist and Chopin-pupil Alfred Jaëll and toured with her husband throughout Europe. They also met Liszt, with whom Marie Jaëll briefly studied after the death of her husband in 1881. Saint-Saëns dedicated his First Piano Concerto to her. Although she also wrote salon music, the piano sonata from 1871 is a very substantial piece of music, stormy and overpowering, but also characterized by great artistic rigor. The sonata was dedicated to Liszt.
[Performance listened to: Alexandre Sorel on Solstice]
16. Xaver Scharwenka, Piano Sonata No 2, Op 36 (1878)
There are two Scharwenkas, brothers, who both became famous as pianists, composers and piano teachers: the elder one, Philip, born in 1847 and the younger one, (Franz) Xaver, born in 1850. The family hailed from Russia (the mother was Polish) but the brothers grew up in Berlin. Xaver was praised for the beauty of his tone, and was a renowned interpreter of the music of Chopin. In 1882, he set up his own music school of which he also established a branch in New York in the 1890s. Xaver Scharwenka wrote four substantial piano concertos which he extensively played himself. Unfortunately, their popularity was in his lifetime overshadowed by his salon pieces, as the
Polish Dances. Xaver Scharwenka also wrote two piano sonatas. The second one dates from 1878 and has been called his most substantial work for piano solo. There are four movements with the scherzo preceding the slow third movement. The melodic content is strong throughout, with vibrant Polish melodies. It is a shame this composer is so little performed today.
[Performance listened to: Seta Tanyel on Hyperion (Helios)]
17. Ferrucio Busoni, Piano Sonata in F minor Op 20 (1883)
That Busoni (1866-1924) was a formidable pianist, is sufficiently proven by his epic and enormous concerto. Strangely, in his mature years he never wrote a piano sonata and is now best known for his large Bach transcriptions and sonatines. But this precocious talent did write a piano sonata when he was still a teenager, finishing the work at Christmas 1883 when he was living in Vienna. Busoni was then just seventeen and starting on a career as a virtuoso touring pianist. Busoni dedicated the three-movement work to Anton Rubinstein whose commanding technique had been very influential on the young composer. The sonata represents the culmination of Busoni’s ambitions as a virtuoso in the Romantic mold. The Allegro risoluto opens with a grand and decisive theme. The Andante con moto is more reticent and exudes a beautiful late-Romantic radiance; it almost leans towards salon music. The finale, which starts with an improvisation, is an Allegro fugato centered on an energetic neo-Classical fugue. The sonata closes with a powerful coda.
[Recording listened to: Emanuele Arciuli on Stradivarius]
18. Eugene d'Albert, Piano Sonata in F sharp minor Op 10 (1893)
Eugen d’Albert (1864-1932) was born in Glasgow of German and partly French parents, studied in London under Arthur Sullivan, and then settled down in Germany. He was one of the greatest pianists of his day. Among his compositions are two piano concertos, but also a cello concerto, a symphony, two string quartets, and the opera
Tiefland. The present sonata is a very ambitious piece of music, massively Brahmsian in character (Brahms wrote his third sonata in the same rare key of F sharp minor, see above). The work is heavily laden with dark octave chords. The second movement is aptly delicate and contemplative and the third movement is a skillful, Bachian triple fugue. The sonata was dedicated to Hans von Bulow.
[Recording listened to: Piers Lane on Hyperion]
19. Paul Dukas, Piano Sonata in E-flat minor (1900)
In the period between the two wars, that of 1870-71 and that of 1914-18, French music flourished. That was also true for piano music, with such various composers as Gounod, Massenet, Bizet, Saint-Saens, Chabrier, Franck, Faure, Chausson, Debussy, Satie and Ravel. But none of these composers wrote a piano sonata, in general small forms were dominant. So when Dukas wrote his huge (45 minute!) sonata in 1900, he was breaking new ground. As every new sonata written around this time was going to be compared with Beethoven, Dukas wrote a very serious sonata, giving all he had in him. It is based on the typical Beethovian "dark to light" principle. Each movement develops its ideas at length. The first movement is characterized by anxious, tormented chromatism. It is in traditional sonata form. Surprisingly, that is also the case with the gentler, second movement. The third movement is a scherzo in ABA form. In the last movement - again in sonata form - a fantasia-like section leads to the aspirational main theme. A sonata which breaks new ground while using traditional methods.
[Recording listened to: Marc-Andre Hamelin on Hyperion]
20. Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Piano Sonata Op 21 (1903)
Paderewski was one of the great piano lions who dominated concert halls in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, brilliant and charismatic. He also was a diplomat and politician who after WWI briefly served as his country's prime minister. As a composer, he is today known for his piano concerto, a nationalistic symphony and various piano pieces, including the present piano sonata, a large late Romantic work, powerful and turbulent. Paderewski wrote it at his home in Switzerland and expressed his worry that it would be too difficult to ever become very popular (he was right). The first sonata-form movement is dark and restless, the chords come clashing like heavy waves on a shore. The second movement is a song without words, and the finale again unleashes pianistic virtuosity, while also including a fugal section.
[Recording listened to: Jonathan Plowright on Hyperion]
