Variations in F minor Hob. XVII:6 (1793)

Until Beethoven grappled with them, the conventions of classical variation form were more of an inhibition than an inspiration. There are many delightful examples by Mozart and Haydn but, with one exception, they wrote nothing in that form to compare with the best of their sonata movements. The exception is Haydn’s Variations in F minor, a work which – by presenting two themes for variation – so successfully combines variation form with sonata form that Haydn was unsure which title to give it.