Sonata
for piano, Op.28 (1927)

Tranquillo e semplice, Quasi menuetto - allegro molto, Andante un poco sostenuto - molto tranquillo - agitato, Allegro con spirito
Duration: 18'
First published by N.Simrock, Berlin, 1927
Available from Boosey & Hawkes: in print (M221120861)

Performances (selection):

Hans Gál, Breslau, Mar. 1928; Vienna, Apr. 1928, Stuttgart Radio, Jun. 1928,
Petra Göring, Vienna, Dec. 1929
Hans Gál, Basle, Feb. 1930; Mainz, Dec. 1930; München Radio, Jun. 1950
Wanda Zachra-Stadler, Vienna, Feb. 1935, Feb. 1936
Köln Radio, Jul. 1949
Mainz, Sept. 1980
Leon McCawley, Surrey, Birmingham, 2001; Stratford-upon-Avon, Apr. 2002

Programme notes:

"Written in 1927. At that time, as always and even now, I was fascinated by the inexhaustible impossibilities of writing for the piano, but at that time I could ask more of my hands than I can today. Incidentally, it is not merely called a sonata, it really is one, with a concentrated, tightly-knit structure; the form of the four movements is completely clear. You couldn't fail to notice that the third is a set of variations, and similarly that the theme of the Rondo grows out of the last bar of the variation theme. Another thematic link is found in the first bar of the first movement: the falling fifth B flat-E flat which it contains is in the motif of the Scherzo, and also in the first bar of the variation theme in the Andante. It will amuse you to hear me confess that I have only just noticed this on looking at the score: when you write in one go, you invent organically, whether you want to or not."
Hans Gál, 1962.