Volume II of two-volume set of excellent Breitkopf & Härtel edition includes Hoboken Nos.

30-52 arranged in chronological sequence: Sonata No.

30 in A Major (ca.

1774-76) culminating with Sonata No.

52 in E-flat Major (1794).

The towering composer who perfected the early symphonic form and invented the modern string quartet also left his indelible mark on the sonata.

During 50 years of inspired creative effort, Haydn experimented constantly with the sonata form, adding a clear thematic structure to the tonal design inherited from earlier composers.

This comprehensive new playing edition contains 52 sonatas by the master — a treasury of keyboard compositions in which echoes of the baroque and harbingers of romanticism blend with the lucidity and elegance of 18th-century classicism.