The movement ends on the dominant chord, and thus leads without break to the lively Presto Finale.  The concluding movement of the next sonata displays a crispness and vigour which remind one of Haydn’s great successor.  Already in connection with these six sonatas have we mentioned Beethoven.  And from this period onwards the kinship between the two composers becomes more evident.  Haydn, however, did not, like Beethoven, rise steadily higher and higher; great moments came, as it were, by fits and starts.  He wrote in season and out of season; nulla dies sine linea seems to have been his motto.  With Beethoven, a later work, unless it be one of his few pieces d’occasion, means a fuller revelation of his genius.

We will now pass on to the latest period, represented by two great sonatas, both in the key of E flat.  The one was written for the composer’s friend and patron, Frau v.  Genziger.  The opening Allegro shows earnest, deep feeling, while at the close of the recapitulation Haydn makes us feel the full power of his genius; the passage irresistibly recalls moments in the first movement of the “Appassionata”; those stately reiterated chords, those solemn pauses, have a touch of mystery about them.  It is interesting to see how the second theme is evolved from the principal subject of the movement; by a slight modification the character of the music is quite changed; what was stately is now light and graceful.  The Adagio cantabile is one of the purest examples of a style of music which has become a thing of the past.  The full and sustained tone of modern instruments has rendered unnecessary those turns, arpeggios, and numerous ornaments with which the composers of the last century tried to make amends for the fleeting tones of their harpsichords and clavichords.  Haydn and Mozart were skilful in this art of embellishment, though sometimes it was unduly profuse; this Adagio of Haydn’s is a model of sobriety.  The bold minor section, which Frau v.  Genziger, by the way, found rather troublesome to play, offers an effective contrast to the major.  A graceful Tempo di Menuetto brings the work to an effective close.  The other Sonata in E flat[76] is much more difficult to play.  The writing is fuller, and it contains passages which even a modern pianist need not disdain.  It is really strange that the sonata is not sometimes heard at the Popular Concerts.  In the opening Allegro the exposition section contains more than the two orthodox themes, and the development section assumes considerable magnitude; the latter is full of clever details and bold modulations.  The key of the Adagio is E major, but this is of course the enharmonic equivalent of F flat.  Brahms, in his last Sonata for Violoncello and Pianoforte in F, has the slow movement in F sharp.  This has been spoken of as a novelty, yet Haydn, as we see, had already made the experiment; and similar instances may be found in Schubert and Beethoven, though not in their pianoforte sonatas.  The Finale Presto reminds one by the style of writing, and by a certain quaint humour, of Emanuel Bach; but there are some bold touches—­sforzandos on unaccented beats, prolongation of phrases, long dwelling on one harmony, etc.—­which anticipate Beethoven.  Traces of the past, foreshadowings of the future; these are familiar facts in evolution.