Joseph Haydn: The Complete Piano Sonatas: Vol.5

Featuring

Won-Sook Hur
Joseph Haydn

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Performer Biography

Won-Sook Hur, a professor emeritus at Hoseo University, has won first prize at the Valsesia International Piano Competition and other awards, and has performed with numerous symphony orchestras.

Critical Reception

Haydn's piano sonatas are considered less popular than those of Mozart and Beethoven, and even less popular than Haydn's own string quartets or symphonies.

Composition History

Haydn's 55 or 56 piano sonatas were created over more than forty years, with many early pieces often titled as partitas or divertimenti.

Compositional Technique

Unlike Mozart's more uniform sonatas, Haydn's piano sonatas are a diverse collection, with early works being simpler and later ones often more texturally advanced than Mozart's.

Critical Reception

Won-Sook Hur's 2018 album of Bach's Goldberg Variations was praised by Pizzicato magazine as a 'Supersonic Album' and nominated for the International Classical Music Awards 2019.

Recording & Production

This album by Korean pianist Won-Sook Hur is a ten-disc set, the culmination of a five-year recording project to capture all of Haydn's piano sonatas.

Composer Biography

Joseph Haydn's works were initially catalogued by the composer himself, but today a more accurate list by Anthony van Hoboken is used, which categorizes his sonatas in chapter sixteen.