No.1 in E-, Wq.59, No.1

Although less prone to sudden mood swings than many of his other keyboard works, this sonata finds unity in themes compiled from brief gestures and flourishes; it's the contents of each melody, rather than how the melodies are manipulated, that exhibit shifting feelings. This is particularly true of the opening Presto movement, whose energy dissipates at the end and bridges directly into the brief Adagio, an expressive, free fantasy. This leads, attacca, into the concluding Andantino, which arises from a florid, long-breathed melody that seems improvised on the spot. Most striking here is a quiet, thin-textured middle section, delicate and hesitant (but interrupted partway through by a short outburst). Oddly, the movement drifts away without resolution, as if the composer had been shaken out of his musical daydreams.

© All Music Guide

No.4 Rondo in C-, Wq. 59, No.4

This short rondo is less a progression of alternating themes than one of constantly shifting moods. The melodies are so full of hesitations and sudden changes of disposition that it can be difficult to tell whether a theme is ending or merely transforming before giving up to something completely new. Indeed, when the opening theme does return, it's virtually in variation form, and the rondo essentially ends by cutting the theme off in mid-phrase. This dramatic, unpredictable music is a prime example of why the composer's contemporaries found him often incomprehensible, yet his work still seems innovative more than two centuries later.

© James Reel, All Music Guide