Mozart: The Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2

Description

Although the sonatas are relatively few in number they do provide a wonderful summary of Mozart’s development as a composer, for there are examples from each of the stages of his career, except the earliest, least characteristic years (before the 1770s). In these eighteen works one may readily trace that remarkable journey from the galant to the Classic, which reflects the entire history of music in the last quarter of the eighteenth century — indeed, it is that history, personalized by two giants: Haydn and Mozart.

By the time the first piano sonatas had been written, Mozart had already reached important plateaus in the fields of chamber and symphonic music: K.173 in D Minor (1733), with its powerful fugal finale, certainly represents his first important string quartet ( the result of Haydn’s influence); K. 201, from early 1774, holds its own today as the popular Symphony No. 29, a brilliant work in A Major. He had even experimented with concerto form, with the first for piano, K. 175 (1733), and the single survivor for bassoon, K. 191. Therefore, although the earliest piano sonatas still bear Rococo (pre- or early-Classic) trademarks, it is clear that they reveal a composer of not inconsiderable experience.

The second group of piano sonatas dates from the highly significant period 1777-1778, when Mozart visited Mannheim and Paris. Techniques and stylistic features of these two centers, fused with the Italo-Viennese traditions already absorbed by the highly impressionable teenager, constitute the primary elements of his musical language. The final synthesis comes with Mozart’s total assimilation of dialects after the move to Vienna in 1781.