HartW 74

J.P.E. Hartmann

Sonate for klaver i d-mol

(Prissonaten)

Pianoforte-Sonate

(Preis-Sonate)

Piano Sonata in D Minor

(Prize Sonata)

Opus 34
HartW 74
JPEW III/1 no. 1
DF 24

Composition: 1841.

In July 1841 Hartmann visited a music festival in Hamburg where he met the music publisher Julius Schuberth who was the chairman of Norddeutscher Musikverein. He told Hartmann that they had issued a prize competition which was also open to composers outside Germany. The deadline was so near that it only left Hartmann four weeks to write his piano sonata. He managed with a narrow margin to get the first three movements back from the copyist but had to inclose his own manuscript for the finale. The sonata garnered the shared second prize among fifty competitors and has therefore been called "The Prize Sonata".

Key: D minor