Piano Sonata Hob. XVI/49

Structure#

This work has three movements. Each is in , a time signature sequence unique in Haydn’s keyboard sonatas. The first and the third movement were written in 1789, with the second movement a later addition. The autograph score of the complete work bears the date June 1, 1790.

Backdrop#

At the time he wrote the sonata, Haydn was 58 years old and nearing a pivotal point in his career. For 28 years he had served the Esterházy family as their director of music, spending an ever-increasing amount of his time isolated in the family’s palace at Esterháza in rural Hungary. As of 1779 he had been allowed to publish his own works, which proved popular throughout Europe, generating new commissions from afar: Paris, Cadiz, Naples. A magazine noted (1784) “the universality of Haydn’s genius cannot be more strongly proved than by the vast demand for his works all over Europe.” Yet he was little seen in the musical world, apart from two or so months of the year when he was able to visit Vienna, the imperial capital and great musical center. In Vienna he was able to interact with many other musicians, for instance, in playing chamber music with his friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was also invited into cultivated homes, such as that of Maria Anna von Genzinger, who ended up playing a major role in the creation of the H. XVI/49 sonata. But the joys of visiting Vienna served to focus Haydn’s sense of discontent with his exile in Esterháza. Although Haydn didn’t know it, all this was about to change drastically with the death of his patron Prince Nikolaus Esterházy on 29 September 1790. Haydn was released to move to Vienna, then journey to London, launching the most successful phase of his career.

Maria Anna von Genzinger#

Haydn met Mrs. Genzinger mostly likely in 1789, during one of his stays in Vienna. She was at the time 36 years old, and was an amateur musician and a mother of six. Wigmore describes her as “cultured, warm-hearted, and a talented pianist.” In 1773, when she was 18, she had married Peter von Genzinger (1737-1797), who was a successful doctor who served as the personal physician of Prince Esterházy. Mrs. Genzinger belonged to a higher social class than Haydn and was addressed by him with the title “Your Grace” (German “Euer Gnaden”). She presided over a cultivated and musical home, and Haydn’s visits there were treasured by him—he wrote to her of “those wonderful parties – where the whole circle is one heart, one soul – all the beautiful evenings …”. However, since Haydn was so often required to be at Esterháza, much of their interaction took place by correspondence. In these letters, Haydn sometimes poured out his feelings, to a degree unique among his acquaintances. In the judgment of biographers, it is likely that Haydn was in love with Mrs. Genzinger—but he also valued her as a friend, and did not cross the line to untoward behavior. The Piano Sonata Hob. XVI/49 was written by Haydn as a gift to her. Whatever Haydn’s feelings may have been, it seems that the gift led to some awkwardness.

The anomalous dedication#

Given that the work emerged as a personal gift to Mrs. Genzinger, it may seem odd that it was dedicated to a different woman: the autograph specified the dedicatee thus: “per la stimatissima most esteemed Signora Anna de Jerlischeck.” Anna Jerlischeck was young woman of some wealth who, following the death of Princess Maria Elisabeth (25 Feb. 1790), took on the role of housekeeper at Prince Nikolaus’s court. Later in 1790 Jerlischeck married the violinist/businessman Johann Tost, who commissioned a number of Haydn’s string quartets. It appears that Jerlischeck, who was a relative of Mrs. Genzinger, had originally commissioned the sonata from Haydn so that she could make a gift of it to Mrs. Genzinger. This is seen in a letter Haydn wrote to Mrs. Genzinger on 6 June 1790: Although Haydn declined a fee from Mlle Jerlischeck, he did in the end accept a gold snuffbox for composing the sonata, after performing (24 June 1790) the work for Jerlischeck and Prince Esterházy. Daniel Heartz found the correspondence surrounding the sonata to be rather odd, and suggested a novel explanation for the procedure that Haydn was following: The compiler of the standard catalog of Haydn’s works, Anthony van Hoboken, observed that the dedication to Mlle Jerlischeck gives evidence of being pasted over an earlier text, which Geiringer (1982:281 fn.) suggests was a dedication to Mrs. Genzinger. It was on 20 June that Haydn announced to Mrs. Genzinger that the sonata would arrive at her home shortly. He tells her that only the Adagio movement is new, and that that this movement bears a special significance.

Mrs. Genzinger’s reaction#

On July 11, having received the sonata and practiced it, Mrs. Genzinger wrote to Haydn from Vienna in reply: Haydn promised an altered version, but it has never come to light. A possible reason for Mrs. Genzinger’s objection has been addressed by scholars. The hand-crossings are, in fact, not especially difficult for the pianist. It seems, rather, that Mrs. Genzinger was motivated by a wish for physical modesty in avoiding the arm gestures and bodily movements needed to play them. Jordan (2016) writes that Mrs. Genzinger requested the change In the same letter Mrs. Genzinger complained that while Haydn had promised her a symphony, she had only gotten a sonata. Despite the possible duplicities and complaints, Haydn and Mrs. Genzinger remained good friends to the very end, namely her tragically premature death from lung disease in 1793.

Mrs. Genzinger’s instrument#

The possible embarrassments mentioned above may have been augmented by a further factor: according to fortepianist Tom Beghin, it is likely that Mrs. Genzinger did not own an appropriate instrument for playing the work: she had a harpsichord, which cannot render the many dynamic subtleties Haydn wrote into the sonata. Beghin writes: Beghin goes on to suggest that the new Schanz was a square; that is, a small rectangular instrument with fairly delicate sound and light touch. Once Mrs. Genzinger finally had her piano, it may indeed have been an ideal instrument for the performance of this work: Wigmore (p. 254) notes the sonata’s “crystalline, Mozartian keyboard style”, contrasting it with the heavier sonority of the Broadwood pianos suited to Haydn’s later, more flamboyant London sonatas (Hob. XVI/50 and Hob. XVI/52).

Publication#

The sonata was first published in August 1791 by Artaria; it is not clear whether the publication was authorized by Haydn or pirated. The title page (in French) reads: The edition bears no dedication. The specification of possible performance on the harpsichord of piano music (clearly contrary to Haydn’s own wishes, as seen above) was common in music publishing at this time, and was applied to Beethoven’s piano music for many years to come. The opus number 66 is not used today; most references employ the Hoboken catalog identification number XVI/49 instead.

Critical commentary#

The work has attracted strong admiration from musicians and scholars. Fortepianist Malcolm Bilson recorded the sonata along with its more-famous companion Hob. XVI/52 under the title “Two Great E-Flat Sonatas” (Nonesuch, 1983). Warm assessments, with discussion, are found in the work of Geiringer (1982), Harrison (2002), Wigmore (2009) and Heartz (2009). The latter writes (p. 412) “the more one gets to know the work the lovelier it becomes.” Maurice Hinson, in the preface to his edition of the Haydn sonatas, writes (1992:17) “the full glory of the Viennese Classical style is apparent in this work.” Of the first movement Wigmore writes (2009:254): The creation of most of the musical ideas from the opening theme in a sonata movement, remarked on by Wigmore, is sometimes called a monothematic exposition, and is a musical practice for which Haydn was admired. The use of an extended coda was new in Haydn’s piano sonatas, a series which initially grew out of a series of simple pedagogical works. Geiringer writes (1982:281) “In this composition Haydn completely forgot the educational purpose of his piano music and followed only his inspiration.” The second movement, in slow triple time, is in ABA form, with A constituted by a beautiful, repeatedly varied melody, and B by a stormy minor-key passage in which the left hand enacts a dialog between bass and treble voices, repeatedly crossing over an accompanying arpeggios in the right hand (the passage complained about by Mrs. Genzinger). There is an extended coda. Biographers (e.g. Wigmore, 253) suggest that it is specifically this movement that would best serve as a love offering; see discussion above about the work’s origin. Wigmore notes that Haydn originally planned a two-movement sonata, then later added the more emotionally charged Adagio movement with Mrs. Genzinger in mind. Of the movement he writes, “If Haydn was in love with Maria Anna – and we can guess that he was – his feelings might be divined from this sensitive, intimate music.” Wigmore also praises Haydn’s variation technique: “Unlike in some of the earlier sonatas, the increasingly elaborate variations of the theme delicately enhance rather than dissipate the music’s expressiveness.” Of final movement, which is in minuet tempo, Wigmore observed that it is “a free rondo with two episodes that relaxes the tension after two such highly charged movements.” He also notes that the theme of the first rondo episode is an evident quotation of a cadential theme of the first movement.

See also#

*List of solo piano compositions by Joseph Haydn

References#

• Bartha, Denes, ed. (1965) Joseph Haydn: Gesammelte Briefe und Aufzeichnungen. Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter.
• Geiringer, Karl (1982), in collaboration with Irene Geiringer. Haydn: A Creative Life in Music, 3rd. ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
• Harrison, Bernard (2002) “Keyboard sonata,” article in David Wyn Jones, Oxford Composer Companions: Haydn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Heartz, Daniel (2009) Mozart, Haydn and Early Beethoven, 1781-1802. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
• Hinson, Maurice, ed. (1992) Haydn: The Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Publishing.
• Hughes, Rosemary (1974) Haydn. London: J. M. Dent.
• Jordan, Hester Bell (2016) Transgressive Gestures: Women and Violin Performance in Eighteenth-Century Europe. M.A. thesis, New Zealand School of Music. Available on line at
• Robbins Landon, H. C. (1959) The Collected Correspondence and London Notebooks of Joseph Haydn. London: Barrie and Rockliff.
• Rosen, Charles (1988) Sonata Forms, revived edition. New York: Norton.
• Schloen, Silke (2020) Preface to the Henle Urtext edition of Hob. XVI/49. The Preface is posted at the Henle website: https://www.henle.de/media/b9/97/7b/1697725892/1485-1697725891-sync.pdf
• Wigmore, Richard (2009) The Faber Pocket Guide to Haydn. London: Faber and Faber.

External links#

• These include scans of the composer’s own fair copy and the first published edition.
• , Alfred Brendel