| Piano Sonata No. 5 | |
| Composer: | Johann Nepomuk Hummel |
| Key: | F-sharp minor |
| Opus: | 81 |
| 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.[1] 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.
This sonata has three movements:
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)."[2]
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.
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.[3] Schumann said that the work will "alone immortalize his [Hummel's] name."[4]
Chopin based his Piano Sonata No. 3 on this sonata.[5]
This sonata may also have influenced Brahms' Piano Sonata No. 2 in F-sharp minor, Op. 2.[6]