Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 4

Maria Hester Park (1760-1813) was an English composer and teacher. Not much information is available about her early life, but she appeared in harpsichord and piano concerts before she married Thomas Park. She was active in composition from about 1795 to 1811.

This second sonata to Park’s Opus 4 (c. 1790) is three-movements in the galant style of the end of the eighteenth century. Variety of rhythms and bravura thirty-second note sections give the piece energy and vitality. Park is well-known for the craft of her keyboard works. Each movement has many characteristics in common: numerous melodic ideas, dynamic indications, primary chords in inversions, a variety of rhythms, bravura areas of thirty-second notes, single measure or short phrase repetitions, and primarily a two-voice texture with several sections in parallel thirds.