The selection of works on this CD is highly personal. The Sonata in C Major was part of my recital debut, and it was also the first work by a composer of the Classical period in which I sensed an almost verbal expression behind the many scales and arpeggios. It was in this sonata I discovered that Haydn spoke more than he sang, something I was to find confirmed many years later, while working on my Ph.D in performance practice.

Andante and Variations in F Minor was part of the first important solo recital I held when I returned to performing this time in a wheelchair following a serious accident. It was a work that indelibly etched itself in my mind from the first time I heard it as a student. It is one of those works that is known simply from the designation "Variations in F Minor". One hardly need mention the name of the composer. It is certainly one of musical history's most important works for piano, and it crowns Haydn's oeuvre for solo piano.

All four works on this CD can, in principle, be played on harpsichord, fortepiano, clavichord or modern piano. The sonatas were written over a period of 20 years at the end of the eighteenth century. At that time, the new, exciting instrument was the fortepiano. This did not mean that people would simply discard the costly harpsichords and clavichords they already had. Well aware of this, Haydn often wrote in the score that it could be played on different keyboard instruments. I think it is safe to say, though, that from around 1780 Haydn was aiming for a fortepiano idiom. - Lars Haugbro

Lars Haugbro made his brilliant piano debut in Oslo in 1982 and has since then performed as soloist and chamber musician in Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, Russia, and the USA. He has appeared as soloist with a number of symphony orchestras, among them, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and he has made television and radio recordings for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).

Haugbro has a solid musical education with a Master in musicology from the University of Oslo and the Higher Diploma in piano from the Norwegian Academy of Music. The study of the fortepiano and research on Haydn's piano music resulted in a doctoral degree in "Eighteenth-Century Performance Practice" from Cornell University (USA) in 2005.

Lars Haugbro has for a number of years taught at Foss Upper Secondary School and as Associate Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music. With his extensive background he is a highly regarded teacher, whose pupils and students have won prizes in competitions, performed in concert, and appeared as soloists with symphony orchestras in Norway and abroad. He is often invited to serve as a jury member at the International Edvard Grieg Piano Competition in Bergen and at the Young Musicians Competition in Oslo, among others.