Piano Sonata in F sharp minor, op. 81
Romantic Sonata Piano solo ~19 min
In brief

This F-sharp minor sonata projects a tense, dramatic mood alternating agitated passages with more songful episodes, and uses dark chordal textures that demand contrasting dynamics to convey its surges of intensity. Technically, you will need to work on Analysis of harmony (3.6/5) to spot and anticipate the modulations and harmonic shifts that shape phrase breathing — this requires a precise hand and forearm gesture to balance voices, bass and accompaniment through transitions — and Knowledge of forms (3.6/5) to clearly map exposition, development and recapitulation, which translates into deliberate decisions about phrasing and handling repeats. From the Romantic period, the work sits in Hummel's output as a sonata that leans toward a more expressive, virtuosic piano language while retaining sonata tradition. I do not provide a performance reference here because I am not 100% certain of a single widely recognized recording for this specific piece.

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Sheet music

Public-domain sheet music on IMSLP ↗

Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
70/100
Advanced
Likely range : 58–82/100
Confidence : 35% · to confirm
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 7 to 8

Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

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Relative difficulty
91%
Among Johann Nepomuk Hummel
78%
Era Romantic
76%
Genre
Movements and pieces of this work

One rarely plays the whole work. We do not yet have a level specific to each of these movements: they carry the opus's level, which does not say which one is the most approachable.

Estimated skills
Theory
Harmonic analysis
1
Theory
Knowledge of forms
1
Pedaling
Sustain pedal
1
Style
Romantic style
1
Rhythm
Tempo rubato
1
Pedaling
Half-pedalling
1
Technique
Trills
1
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

See the whole progression