In 2018, Paul Lewis embarked on an exploration of one of the richest bodies of work of the Classical era: the keyboard sonatas of Haydn. For his second volume, the British pianist tackles some of the most remarkable pieces in this vast oeuvre: the exceptionally concise Sonata in D major Hob. XVI:51, for example, which is surprisingly pre-Romantic (Schubert is not far off!), or the celebrated Sonata in E flat major Hob. XVI:52, with which Haydn conferred well-nigh symphonic dimensions on the keyboard sonata for the very first time.
