Haydn: 20 Variations in G major, Hob.XVII/2

It was in Haydn's hands that the keyboard sonata developed from a simple drawing-room divertimento to the level of a high art-form and the greatest among his sonatas have an intellectual rigour and a dramatic sweep that were rarely equalled by Mozart, and not surpassed until Beethoven revolutionized the form in the closing years of the eighteenth century. His earliest sonatas were composed with the harpsichord in mind, but in later years he began increasingly to exploit dynamic contrasts of a kind that could only be obtained on the fortepiano.

This complete Haydn music for solo keyboard box set includes 15 CDs featuring 55 sonatas as well as sets of dances and variations and various independent pieces. Included is also an unusual keyboard arrangement of The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross, published in 1787 with the composer’s approval. These recordings were originally released between 1999 and 2004, in instalments which received universal acclaim, including a Cannes Classical Award in 2004.