Three Sonatinas

The Three Sonatinas (in German: Drei Sonatinen), Op. 67, is a collection of compositions for piano written in July 1912 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

History
In 1912 Sibelius found himself creatively at a crossroads, still searching for his next major project in the wake of the Symphony No. 4 in A minor (Op. 63), which he had premiered the previous April in Helsinki. He considered composing one to two orchestral fantasies or, alternatively, a new symphony. Moreover, he toyed with the idea of, finally, undertaking a large-scale opera (The Maiden in the Tower, JS 101, from 1896 had been a brief, one-acter), after the Finnish operatic soprano Aino Ackté and Jalmari Finne had approached him with a libretto.

Sonatina No. 1
The First Sonatina is in F-sharp minor and has three movements: 1. Allegro

2. Largo

3. Allegro moderato

Sonatina No. 2
The Second Sonatina is in E major and also has three movements: 1. Allegro

2. Andantino

3. Allegro

Sonatina No. 3
The Third Sonatina is in B-flat major and has two movements, although some commentators consider the Allegretto (bar 39) in Movement II to be sufficiently distinct in its thematic material that it constitutes a third movement: 1. Andante – Allegro moderato

2. Andante – Allegretto

Reception
Robert Layton characterizes the Three Sonatinas as "probably Sibelius's most convincing keyboard works. They are compact in design and economical in utterance ... the suitability of the ideas to the medium ... shows a considerable advance over Sibelius's earlier work". Indeed, Layton proclaims the First Sonatina as "the most perfect" composition in Sibelius's entire output for solo piano, although "the remaining two ... are very nearly as fine".

Discography
The Hungarian pianist Ervin László made the world premiere studio recording of the Three Sonatinas in 1959 for RCA Victor. The sortable table below lists this and other commercially available recordings of the Sonatinas:

Notes, references, and sources

 * Notes


 * References


 * Sources