Beschreibung
The Sonata #55 Hob. XVI-41 was written By Haydn for pianoforte or clavichord in
1784. As in all my Haydn arrangements I refer to the groundbreaking musicology and tempi research of Belgian keyboardist Wim Winters. In my opinion he has proved that modern tempi for works by Haydn (and others) are misunderstood and predominantly too fast. The moderate tempi he performs make these arrangements possible on two guitars and their addition to the repertoire greatly raises the musical quality of what can be played from that era on the guitar.
In this case we have the contemporary tempi indications by Ignaz Moscheles.
In that era Winters proves that tempo indications were twice as fast as is understood now. In other words 2 ticks of a metronome made up the tempo of the quarter note rater than one, hence, Allegro = 72 per 1/4 note rather than 144 and the Allegro di Molto=66 rather than 132.
I quote Winters from his lovely recording
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfEKA872os4) : “Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870) is one of the most important tempo related sources. Liszt called him the pillar of piano playing, but he could easily be called one of the pillars of historical research to performance practice. The information we have from his hand is dizzying.
Here I play according to the metronome marks he gave for this Haydn sonata. Lack of inspiration some will say... well, let them. A tempo is a fundamental choice, based on many factors. Implementing a given tempo is nothing more than fixing one element of the performer, perhaps the most important one. The performer's job left is a difficult one: finding a new balance of all musical parameters.”