Haydn has a reputation for being a bit dull. His piano sonatas are neglected and there seems to be a reluctance to programme his music. This puzzles me, and I believe it’s time for his music to be just as widely programmed as that of his peers, Mozart and Beethoven. I can understand that when people start the piano, they often learn a random movement from an early Haydn sonata that isn’t difficult to play, so his music seems a bit academic. However, the real Haydn is very different to this first impression. His range is huge, his humour is like no other composer’s and his slow movements can be incredibly tender and heartfelt. 

One banal possibility is that there are so many of his piano sonatas that it’s hard to distinguish one from another, especially as none of them have titles. Even for Beethoven, many of the piano sonatas don’t get the attention they deserve, whereas the most played are, for example, the ‘Moonlight’, ‘Appassionata’, ‘Tempest’ – all named ones. None of Haydn’s piano sonatas have names. Could it be it as simple as that?

'Haydn builds up your expectations, only to do something completely different' - Paul Lewis (photo: Robert Torres)

I’m often asked which composer I’d like to have dinner with, and it would be Haydn, because he would be so entertaining. He seems to have been a prankster and liked surprising people, which comes across in his music. Not many composers get close to the way Haydn can make an audience laugh. He does it by building up expectations and then doing something completely different. You feel that the music is going somewhere harmonically and then it goes wrong. It’s funny when you expect the music to develop in a certain way, and then it doesn’t. It doesn’t take much understanding of harmony for an audience to engage in this – the humour is quite obvious and comes across easily when it’s performed the right way.

Haydn gave Beethoven some lessons and certainly influenced him. Beethoven rejected much of what he learnt, but some filtered through, including the humour, even if it’s very different from that of Haydn. Beethoven’s humour is brutal – he wants to shock you into laughing and throws things at you. Sometimes it’s as if he’s lampooning himself, rather than making the audience laugh out loud. Haydn is mischievous and doesn’t want to hurt anyone – he just wants to make you laugh.

‘Recording Haydn works well – it’s an opportunity to focus on the smallest details’

Haydn’s approach to piano sonatas is also different to that of Mozart. Mozart can be full of surprises, but somehow these always seem inevitable, at the same time as being unexpected. You feel that he has a plan. You set out on a journey, you get to the end and it’s complete – there’s a sense of inevitability and perfection. With Haydn, if there is a plan, he constantly rips it up and does something different. He has the same perfectionism as Mozart, but the process is different. Haydn is to Mozart as Schubert is to Beethoven: Beethoven is the great resolver, finding solutions to everything, which Schubert doesn’t do. It’s the same with Haydn: there’s no preconceived journey as there is with Mozart, and that’s his intention. That’s how he builds up your expectations, only to do something completely different to what you expect. 

I remember playing the big E flat Sonata to Alfred Brendel in a masterclass when I was a student at Guildhall School. At that point I thought I got Haydn’s humour, but Alfred opened new doors. He helped me to see it in a much bigger way and to understand more about how to project the humour in a performance. You have not only to play it, but to act it – to a certain extent. That changed my playing and my understanding of Haydn.

The way you move, and certain gestures you make, can underline the different characters of the music – and not only the humour. To draw different sounds and colours from the instrument, you use different kinds of articulation and speeds of attack, combined with different ways of pedalling. The physicality of this communicates to the audience. They can see the difference in how you’re playing, which underlines the characters of the music. But it must be subtle: you don’t want the audience to think you’re acting, or lecturing them. Less is more, but it has to be there, and you have to think about it. 

Paul Lewis playing Haydn's Piano Sonata in D major Hob.XVI:51 at Wigmore Hall

There is such a lot of detail in Haydn’s writing and to get the humour across, you have to be very specific in your articulation, colour and timing. From that point of view, recording Haydn works well, compared with performing it live – it’s an opportunity to focus on the smallest details in order to get the funny side of it. 

Haydn must have had considerable ability because his piano writing is well developed and virtuosic, especially in the later sonatas, including the E flat and C major. They don’t always lie nicely under the hands, though. When you put your hands over Chopin and Liszt you can feel immediately how they were as pianists. You don’t get such a clear picture with Haydn. As with Beethoven, pianistic considerations are not the priority – it’s about getting the message across and writing whatever they must in order to do that.

The piano sonatas always contain cross-references with Haydn’s other music. His orchestra writing, for example, is very specific and informs his piano music, especially in the later pieces, which are symphonic. It’s important to understand his orchestral sound and to get the sense of that in the piano music. 

Haydn breaks boundaries wherever you look. The later sonatas are particularly forward-looking – for example, the first movement of the E minor Sonata Hob:XVI/34 is a presto in 6/8 which is strange for a first movement; the D major Sonata Hob:XVI/51 has two movements, lasts six minutes and is unlike any of the others – it sounds like Schubert of the ‘Trout’ Quintet, melodically and in its character. Haydn’s music is entertainment, but it’s very sophisticated, and you can enjoy it at any level.

We shouldn’t see Haydn as limited to certain parameters. There’s sometimes a sense that Classical composers are on a smaller scale but there’s nothing small or limited about Haydn. We need to look beyond these preconceptions and see him in all his colour and character.

As musicians, we just have to keep trying to get the message out there and play Haydn in a way that gets it across as clearly as we can. The starting point is that you have to feel it very strongly. If you’re convinced yourself, you’ve got the best chance of convincing other people. If not, then play something else. 

Paul Lewis's latest edition in his series of Haydn piano sonatas - featuring Nos. 20, 34, 51 and 52 - is available now from Harmonia Mundi. It will be reviewed in the next issue of Gramophone, and you can listen to the album below via Apple Music.