Variations in F minor

The Andante with variations in F minor (Hoboken XVII:6), also known as Un piccolo divertimento, is a work for piano composed by Joseph Haydn in 1793.

But it is not far-fetched to suggest, as several commentators have done, that the tragic intensity of the coda may have been prompted by the sudden death of Maria Anna von Genzinger, at the age of forty-two, on 26 January 1793.

The idea that the coda was provoked by the news of Frau von Genzinger's death was first advanced by Robbins Landon (1955).

The original coda is just five bars long, a keyboard flourish in F major that ends the work on an upbeat note.

The far more substantial coda performed today was added as a "working score" to an existing "fair copy" (Gerlach).

[8] The manuscript of the Variations is owned by the Music Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

The late British composer and pianist John McCabe called it Haydn's "most extended and most resourceful such work for the keyboard.

Examples of the latter include recordings by Paul Badura-Skoda, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Bart van Oort, and Christine Schornsheim.