Piano Sonata in E Minor

Only a few of Haydn's piano sonatas are in the minor mode, and they are all somber and defiant in tone. This famous sonata in E minor opens with an impatient, throbbing motif in what is surely one of the most passionate movements by this Viennese master. The middle movement in G major, by contrast, transports us into a different world that is flooded with light. The finale takes off in a restless manner, and its alternation of major and minor provides a cheerfully ironic close to the work.