Variations in F Minor (Sonata) Hob. XVII: 6 (Softcover)

Variations in F Minor (Sonata), Hob. XVII:6 (Revised Edition). By Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Edited by Sonja Gerlach. Henle Music Folios. Softcover. 20 pages. G. Henle #HN912. Published by G. Henle.

Haydn's last piano work is also considered to be his most famous single work for this instrument. The minor theme is filled with emotional depth: “a melancholy andante in F minor, with variations, as only a genius can do them, that almost sounds like a free fantasia” (thus described in a review of the time). The form is also demanding: not merely one theme but two – one in a major key, the other in a minor one – are varied in turn. The autograph gives one to believe that the work was originally intended to be the first movement of a sonata. This single edition has been taken from the recently revised volume of “Piano pieces” (HN 224) and furnished with a detailed commentary. Henle also recently published a facsimile of Haydn's autograph of the Variations in f minor: HN 3218.