Without a doubt, Joseph Haydn was one of the most influential composers of the Classical period. The Classical period is said to start on the same ear of Johann Sebastian Bach's death, 1750 and its prolonged until 1820. During this time many composers contributed to the development of the Classical style, but Haydn was the most important one as he was the leading creator of the Sonata form.
Among the piano students, Haydn Sonatas are a must in their repertoire. For piano tutors, his Sonatas are the favourite ones to teach as they, within themselves, show the evolution of Haydn as a pianist himself, turning these pieces into a useful pedagogical material as we can observe how his skills improved dramatically over the years.
In this Sonata, we can see how still Haydn was influenced by the Baroque period as this piece has three movements, commonly used on an earlier period, not four movements, which became the norm during the Romantic period.
Even though he composed his first Sonata at the age of twenty-seven, we can recognise his musical maturity. The mastery and control of the motives, the clear and robust structure and the definition of his style, even in this early work, defines Haydn's craft entirely.
More inside the piece, Georgios Kommatas, author of the analysis, explains: "The layout of the Movements is very standard. All the composers have unanimously used the 'Allegro' to begin the Sonata. The Second Movement is usually slow, as in this piece, an 'Andante', which means "at a walking speed". The 'Menuet-Trio' is a usual finale for Haydn as seen in his next Sonatas (e.g. HOB XVI: 2, 3, 4, 11 and others)
All three Movements are in C major. A shared tonic key can be traced from the Baroque Suite, which was customary to have all the Movements in the same key.
During the Classical period, this tendency changed slowly towards different keys through the movements in a Sonata. This tendency can reveal how Haydn was still composing upon the Baroque style.
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