Masters of the Sonatina, Book 2: Piano Book

These sonatinas offer the elegance of classical form without excessive virtuosity. You'll encounter clear melodies, balanced textures, and satisfying harmonic progressions that reward careful listening and deliberate phrasing.

Intermediate and late intermediate piano students ready to explore multimovement forms and develop structural awareness. This collection appeals to students who have built basic technical fluency and are ready to tackle pieces that require thoughtful interpretation alongside disciplined playing.

• Work through the formal structure before diving into interpretive choices. Understanding where the exposition ends, how the development unfolds, and where the recapitulation arrives will give you clarity when shaping phrasing and dynamics.
• Balance the Alberti bass or accompaniment patterns so they support rather than dominate the melodic line. These textures are foundational to sonatina writing, but they should never overshadow the main voice.
• Practice hands separately until you can execute the faster passages with steady tempo and clarity. Sonatinas demand precision in both hands, and isolating them first builds security.
• Pay attention to articulation markings. Sonatinas from this period rely on staccato and legato to define character and style, so treat these indications as seriously as you would dynamics.

Deploy individual sonatinas as recital staples or as cornerstones of semester repertoire. The intermediate selections work well alongside contemporary pieces of similar difficulty, giving students a sense of how classical forms have evolved.

• Reading and performing multimovement structures (exposition, development, recapitulation)
• Executing Alberti bass and broken chord accompaniment patterns with consistency
• Differentiating articulation between staccato and legato phrases
• Balancing melody and accompaniment across both hands
• Developing tempo stability across moderate to moderately fast passages
• Understanding period style and appropriate rubato for classical repertoire