Haydn: Piano Sonata No. 59 in E flat major, Hob.XVI:49

“This disc offers delectable performances of five shrewdly contrasted works: two troubled, trenchant minor-key sonatas from the 1770s juxtaposed with a pair of lightweight pieces from the same period and culminating in the great E flat Sonata.
Andsnes is responsive to the individual character of these sonatas, to their richness and variety of incident, and their sheer unpredictablility. With his wide spectrum of colour and dynamics he makes no apologies for using a modern Steinway.
But his playing, founded on a pellucid cantabile touch and diamantine passagework, marries classical refinement and clarity with a spontaneous exuberance, a sense that the next phrase is yet to be created. Andsnes is always ready to add stylish and witty touches of embellishment to the repeats. The opening movements of both minorkey sonatas have a lithe, sinewy urgency, above all in the vehement sequences of their developments, together with a rare delicacy of nuance: and here, as elsewhere, you notice how alive and concentrated is his piano and pianissimo playing. Andsnes brings a bright, buoyant yet lyrical approach to the E flat Sonata's outer movements, to the wonderful Adagio a limpid line, a subtly flexed pulse and, in the B flat minor central episode, a true sense of passion. This is just the sort of playing – joyous, imaginative, involving – to win Haydn's sonatas a wider following. The recording of the E flat, made in a church in Oslo, has slightly more ambient warmth than that of the remaining sonatas, recorded at EMI's Abbey Road studios. But throughout, the piano sound is natural and present without being too closely miked.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“In one particular way, these performances of Haydn's Sonata Nos 59 in E-flat Major, 54 in G Major, 47 in B Minor and 40 in E-flat Major are the antithesis of scholarly. Well, they are scholarly in the best sense, but are also free of any stuffiness or dryness, as Geoffrey Lancaster unleashes two reproductions of late 18th¬century fortepianos to bring out as much of the diversion, wit and unceasing drama that can be summoned from these scores. These are very free readings, seeking to express Haydn's amazing reservoir of lively inventiveness. As part of his musical adventure, Lancaster reverts to a very old musical practice of adding a short Prelude before each sonata. Some of these are based on old original preludes from other hands; some are composed by Lancaster himself at the keyboard. And in another reversion to historical practice, he resiles from a literal reading of the score to add appropriate improvised embellishments.” Anthony Clarke, Limelight, January 2012

“Lancaster’s brand of lyricism is unusual: hard-edged, hard-fought and hard-won, making for a different kind of expressiveness. It’s not beautiful but it holds your attention. A continually wayward individuality is stressed.” MusicWeb International, July 2012