Sonata for piano, Op. 19 (1935) / Little Pieces for piano, Op. 19 (1938?)
Manuscript: Unknown
Premiere: No data available
In his 1933 text on Koffler, Alfred Plohn informs that the composer is writing ‘his second sonatina for piano’ (‘Josef Koffler. Ein junger polnischer Komponist’, Signale für die musikalische Welt, 5 June 1933, Nos. 23/24, 439). It is possible that this sonatina was soon extended into a sonata, since the partially handwritten list of works that the composer compiled around 1935 includes a Piano Sonata, marked as Op. 19, which Koffler describes as being part of ‘the repertoire of Leopold Muenzer’, his friend and performer of his piano works.
The sonata is absent from later lists of his compositions, and its fate is unknown. The opus number was taken over by (likewise rather mysterious) Little Pieces for piano, possibly the same miniatures that Koffler mentioned in a letter to Alois Hába of 7 April 1936:
Let me take the liberty to dedicate these “simple” piano pieces to your daughter, though I’m afraid you may not like them.
The work may have been related in some way to Little Pieces for Children, marked as Op. 16a in Koffler’s own inventory of ca 1935, and to Little Serenade (Divertimento) for reed trio.