Piano Sonata No. 5 (Hummel)

Piano Sonata No. 5
by Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Hummel in 1820
Key	F-sharp minor
Opus	81
Composed	1819 (1819)
Dedication	Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Published	1819
Publisher	Steiner
Duration	23-35 minutes
Movements	3
Scoring	piano

Johann Nepomuk Hummel's Piano Sonata No. 5 in F-sharp minor, Op. 81 was written and published in 1819. The work is written in a proto-Romantic style that anticipates the later stylistic developments of composers such as Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Felix Mendelssohn, and Johannes Brahms.

Structure

First page of the first movement of Hummel's Piano Sonata Op. 81

This sonata has three movements:

• I. Allegro
• II. Largo con molto espressione (in B minor)
• III. Finale:Vivace

The first movement is in sonata form. The movement has been described as a "stylistic mélange of writing that more closely resembles a fantasy than a formally structured sonata first movement (there is no exposition repeat, for example)."

The second movement, marked Largo con molto espressione, is in B minor and 3/4 time.

The finale is in rondo form and returns to the sonata's home key of F-sharp minor. It is the most technically challenging movement, featuring double thirds and fugal passages.

Reception and influence

This sonata influenced certain works of Schumann, Chopin, and Brahms.

Joel Lester points out the similarities between this sonata and Schumann's Allegro Op. 8 and Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 11. Schumann said that the work will "alone immortalize his [Hummel's] name."

Chopin based his Piano Sonata No. 3 on this sonata.

This sonata may also have influenced Brahms' Piano Sonata No. 2 in F-sharp minor, Op. 2.