Vienna, Austria — January 31, 2025 — Austrian composer Ulrich Lehensteiner announces the release of his Piano Sonata in B Minor, performed by pianist Haley Miles. The album, available worldwide from January 24, 2025, offers an interesting new take on the traditional genre, merging classical structures with contemporary influences, both musical and non-musical.
It is truly a piece that refuses any categorisation, being structured strictly like a traditional piano sonata, but in a musical style that exceeds listeners’ expectations of classical music, full of modern influences. Lehensteiner adds continuously driving bass lines, syncopated rhythms and almost theatrically narrative structures into the traditional sonata form, drawing inspiration from the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber and video game soundtracks like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy by Yoko Shimomura and Nobuo Uematsu.
„Those might be unusual inspirations for a classical piece“, says Lehensteiner. „But they are what gives the sonata its unique style. It features powerful rhythms and lush melodies at the same time, and I think that both classical music fans and gamers alike will enjoy it, as it comes from an avid gamer. Of course, the dense motivic development is primarily inspired by Beethoven, but my other influences come from a variety of sources, like media.“
Media like the Netflix-series „The Witcher“. Originally intended as a waltz-arrangement for piano four hands, the song „A Little Sacrifice“ from the show later served as main inspiration for the sonatas first movement. „I altered the time signature, rhythm and melody more and more, until I had an entirely different theme. This actually kickstarted the composition of the entire sonata. In the final piece, the original song probably isn’t even recognisable anymore, but it certainly was an inspiration.“
The second movement is, in traditional sonata-form, the complete antithesis to the driving first one, with it’s intimate arpeggio-motifs and broad harmonic textures. A brilliantly virtuosic, boisterous waltz marks, in true Lehensteiner-fashion, the grand finale of the sonata.
When asked about his personal musical style, Lehensteiner says with a smile, „It is probably best described as: Beethoven as a gamer.“
Ulrich Lehensteiner’s Piano Sonata in B Minor, performed by Haley Miles, is available now on Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon Music, Youtube and Spotify.
About Ulrich Lehensteiner
Ulrich Lehensteiner is an austrian composer living in Vienna. His compositions span a wide range of genres, from music for solo instruments, over chamber music, to orchestral music. His next project „Tundra“, a concerto for piano and string-orchestra, is already in the works.
