The measured tread and hypnotically steady theme of the opening Larghetto-Adagio announce this as a sober sonata, indeed, but not one that exploits its minor key for pathos. Upon each iteration, the recorder's melody becomes a bit more ornate, so the movement is not as austere as it initially seems. The Andante picks up the pace, but the somewhat monotonous recorder theme pales next to the continuo part, which interjects a little burbling figure every couple of bars through much of the movement. (The melody appears in different form in the solo "Vouchsafe, o Lord" in Handel's Te Deum in A.) This is followed by an extremely compact Adagio; the recorder strives upward in a short sequence of gestures, but gives up in less than a minute and enters a more horizontal race with the continuo in the final Presto.

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