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Piano Sonata

tagStarted c. 1740Peak 1770–1830Last big hit still active

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Classical / Orchestral → Solo Piano / Keyboard Classical

The Piano Sonata is a multi-movement solo keyboard work built around formal contrast, especially sonata-allegro exposition, development, and recapitulation in at least one movement. Its sound can be elegant, tragic, stormy, lyrical, or philosophical, but the genre is defined by long-form argument: themes collide, modulate, transform, and return changed.

History

Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas helped establish the term, but the Classical piano sonata matured with Haydn, Mozart, Clementi, and Beethoven as the fortepiano became expressive enough for public drama and private nuance. Schubert expanded lyric breadth, Chopin and Liszt bent the form toward Romantic fantasy, and later Brahms, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Barber, Boulez, and contemporary composers treated the sonata as a test of how much historical structure could absorb.

Defining artists

Essential listening

  • Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111, II. Arietta — Artur SchnabelSpotifyYouTube
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14, Moonlight, I. Adagio sostenuto — Wilhelm KempffSpotifyYouTube
  • Schubert: Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960, II. Andante sostenuto — Alfred BrendelSpotifyYouTube
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8, Pathétique, II. Adagio cantabile — Daniel BarenboimSpotifyYouTube
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 29, Hammerklavier, I. Allegro — Maurizio PolliniSpotifyYouTube
  • Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11, Rondo alla turca — Mitsuko UchidaSpotifyYouTube
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Sources

  • Grove Music Online
  • Charles Rosen, Sonata Forms
  • William S. Newman, The Sonata in the Classic Era
  • Oxford Music Online