Variations in F Minor

Haydn’s Variations in F minor date from 1793, when he had already written nearly 60 sonatas for the piano. Cast in a single movement lasting 15 minutes, the Variations have a sustained sense of introspection that is rare in Haydn’s habitually outward-looking, life-enhancing music. There are two main themes, one tentative and tiptoeing in the minor key, the other more playful and relaxed in the major. Haydn writes two variations on each of these building blocks, the insertion of syncopations and recurrent trills suggesting a questioning and partial destabilisation of the opening material. Originally intending to stop after the second set of variations, Haydn appended a lengthy concluding section where the anxieties that have stalked the Variations finally become explicit, prompting a flurry of agitated chord patterns up and down the keyboard. The Variations end in a muted fashion, suggesting some underlying mystery without fully revealing it.