The crisp opening movement of the F major, No 23, trading mainly on scintillating toccata-style figuration, is enriched by sudden dips to the minor mode. Between this and the gamesome finale—a sonata-form movement that varies and develops its contredanse theme with characteristic guile—comes a rhapsodic F minor
siciliano: music that surely influenced Mozart in his F major sonata, K280, of 1775, though unlike Mozart’s
siciliano it relies less on melody than on dreamy figuration and richly expressive harmony.
from notes by Richard Wigmore © 2007
