Hyperion Records

For the opening Allegro con brio of sonata No 39 in G major, Haydn resorted to a spot of self-borrowing, recycling the perky tune of the Scherzando second movement of sonata No 36 from the same, ‘Auenbrugger’ set. To deflect ‘the criticism of various half-wits’ (even as late as 1780 he could be surprisingly touchy and defensive), Haydn got Artaria to add an explanatory note on the reverse of the title page: ‘Among these six sonatas are two movements that use the same idea for the first few bars … the composer wishes it to be known that he has done this on purpose to demonstrate different methods of treatment.’ This is one of Haydn’s favourite rondo-variations designs, with embellished reprises of the theme interleaved with two episodes, one in G minor (in effect a free variation of the theme), the other, in E minor, taking the dotted rhythm in bar two of the theme as a cue for a swaggering Hungarian-style march. The C major Adagio, typically of Haydn’s sonata slow movements, lives more from florid, ruminative figuration than from cantabile melody, à la Mozart, while the finale is a playful, featherweight 6/8 Prestissimo with a delightful whiff of Scarlatti.

from notes by Richard Wigmore © 2009