Haydn’s piano music remains terra incognita among many pianists and music lovers, despite the fact that his achievement for keyboard solo is both more voluminous and of higher quality than much of Mozart’s. In fact, there are no solo piano works by Mozart that reach the level of the works on this disc. Haydn’s last three sonatas (Nos. 60-62), along with No. 59, also included here, clearly anticipate Beethoven in their boldness, confident keyboard technique, and expansive layout. All but the tiny, two-movement No. 61 are large, symphonically grand, three-movement works, each about 20 minutes long. Ronald Brautigam follows up his excellent previous volume with an equally fine recital in which he pushes his (authentic) instrument to its limits in realizing Haydn’s adventurous inspirations. He clearly relishes the hilarious “stop and start” finale of Sonata No. 60, and he sustains the hymn-like serenity of No. 62’s slow movement with the right sense of repose. The great E-flat Sonata, No. 59, gets a performance on the grandest possible scale, with a broadly articulated opening allegro and a central Adagio that really sings as Haydn’s “cantabile” marking requires. If I have any complaint, it’s that Brautigam becomes a bit skittish in No. 62’s finale, where a slightly slower tempo and a clearer treatment of the left hand would have realized even more of the music’s wit. Otherwise, there’s no reason that anyone following this series should hesitate to acquire this latest installment.
