Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Click cover art to view larger version
Track(s) taken from CDA67710

Piano Sonata in A major, Hob XVI:26

composer
1773; published as part of a set of six dedicated to Prince Nicolaus Esterházy in 1774

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)
Recording details: August 2008
Henry Wood Hall, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Simon Eadon
Release date: August 2009
Total duration: 11 minutes 51 seconds

Cover artwork: Portrait of Joseph Haydn engraved by F A Andorff by Carl Jäger
The Cobbe Collection Trust, UK / Bridgeman Images
 

Other recordings available for download

Peter Donohoe (piano)

Reviews

‘One of the outstanding releases of the Haydn celebratory year’ (International Record Review)

‘A marvellously polished collection of performances … he is a model of correctness, with enough wit, exuberance and the most exquisite lightness of touches to keep the music buoyant’ (The Guardian)

‘Hamelin is most associated with virtuoso fireworks for piano, but he can also miniaturise himself exquisitely to suit Haydn's wit and elegance … the spring in his fingers is delightful’ (The Times)

‘As always, Haydn's originality astonishes and delights in his piano music as much as in his symphonies and string quartets. Hamelin revels in the tongue-in-cheek high jinks of the finale to the E minor sonata (No 34) … and is especially compelling in the great C major (No 48) … works that rank with the finest creations of the Viennese Classical period. An unmissable bargain at two-discs-for-the-price of one’ (The Sunday Times)

‘The continuous outpouring of beautiful tone; it's mesmerizing … these performances are beyond criticism’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘They sound absolutely superb, in the right hands, on the modern grand piano. And Marc-André Hamelin has the right hands, as his first two-disc set showed … playing of crisp clarity and deep feeling, superbly recorded’ (Dominion Post, New Zealand)

‘This Hyperion double set contains some of the finest performances of Haydn sonatas I have heard. Hamelin's playing overflows with ardent lyricism and I especially enjoyed his naturalness of rubato. The close sound quality from the Henry Wood Hall is impressive and the booklet essay by Richard Wigmore is helpful too’ (MusicWeb International)
The A major Sonata No 26 was composed in 1773 (a fragment of the autograph survives) and published in a set of six sonatas the following year—the first official publication of any of Haydn’s works—with a judicious dedication to his employer Prince Nicolaus Esterházy. The expansive first movement offsets its mock-military opening theme (horns are evoked at the outset) with rhapsodic excursions into the minor key. In the development Haydn makes something romantically expressive out of an extended chain of Baroque-style sequences. The second movement recycles, a tone higher, the charming palindromic Menuet al rovescio from Symphony No 47 of 1772. In both the minuet and the trio the music is played twice forwards, then twice backwards (for the player’s convenience the reversal is written out in the printed score). The finale is a disconcertingly brief (26-bar!) frolic, sounding like a rondo theme lopped off from the main body of the movement.

from notes by Richard Wigmore © 2009

La sonate en la majeur no 26 fut composée en 1773 (un fragment de l’autographe nous a été conservé) et parut l’année suivante dans un corpus de six sonates—la première publication officielle d’une œuvre de Haydn—avec une judicieuse dédicace à l’employeur du compositeur, le prince Nicolaus Esterházy. Le premier mouvement, expansif, balance son thème liminaire pseudo-militaire (des cors sont suggérés au début) par des digressions rhapsodiques en mineur. Dans le développement, Haydn tire d’une longue série de séquences en style baroque quelque chose de romantiquement expressif. Le deuxième mouvement recycle, un ton plus haut, le charmant Menuet al rovescio palindromique de la Symphonie no 47 (1772). Dans le menuet comme dans le trio, la musique est jouée deux fois de gauche à droite, puis deux fois en sens inverse (pour le confort de l’interprète, cette inversion est écrite en toutes notes sur la partition imprimée). Le finale, une badinerie étonnamment brève (vingt-six mesures!), ressemble à un thème de rondo retranché au corps principal du mouvement.

extrait des notes rédigées par Richard Wigmore © 2009
Français: Hypérion

Die A-Dur-Sonate Nr. 26 wurde 1773 komponiert (ein Fragment des Autographs ist erhalten) und im folgenden Jahr in einem Heft von Sonaten—der ersten offiziellen Publikation von Werken Haydns—mit einer wohlkalkulierten Widmung an seinen Dienstherrn Fürst Nikolaus Eszterházy veröffentlicht. Der expansive erste Satz stellt seinem quasi militärischen Anfangsthema (das gleich zu Beginn Hörner evoziert) rhapsodischen Ausflügen nach Moll gegenüber. In der Durchführung fabriziert Haydn etwas Romantisch-expressives aus einer langen Kette von barockhaften Sequenzen. Der zweite Satz verwendet das anmutige palindromische Menuet al rovescio aus der Symphonie Nr. 47 von 1772 wieder, hier einen Ton höher. Sowohl im Menuett als auch im Trio wird die Musik zweimal vorwärts, dann zweimal rückwärts gespielt (zur Bequemlichkeit des Spielers wird in der gedruckten Partitur die Umkehrung ausgeschrieben). Das Finale ist ein verdutzend (26 Takte!) kurzer Moment der Ausgelassenheit, der wie ein Rondothema klingt, das vom Hauptsatz abgehackt wurde.

aus dem Begleittext von Richard Wigmore © 2009
Deutsch: Renate Wendel

Other albums featuring this work

Haydn: Keyboard Works, Vol. 1
Studio Master: SIGCD7262CDs Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Waiting for content to load...
Waiting for content to load...