Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 06/09/2010, uploaded on 12/21/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

I. Tema (Andante grazioso) con variazioni; II. Menuetto; III. Alla turca (Allegretto)

The Sonata in A is the second of three sonatas likely to have been composed during 1783, perhaps during the period Mozart and his wife Constanze spent in Salzburg in the summer months of that year. This was the occasion on which the composer introduced his new bride to his father Leopold. They were almost certainly composed with his Viennese pupils in mind, as teaching formed one of Mozart's principal sources of income during his early years in the Austrian capital.

The sonata on today's program has gained particular fame for its last movement, the "Rondo alla turca." That movement took its inspiration from the popularity of quasi-Turkish music in Vienna, a fashionable form already exploited by Mozart in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) of the previous year. The Rondo includes a march-like B section with rolled block chords that evoke the drums of the Turkish Janissary bands.

Some commentators have also heard echoes of the opera in the opening movement, which, uniquely among Mozart's sonatas, is a set of variations. The central movement is a Menuetto making the sonata also unique in Mozart's output in that none of the three movements is in traditional sonata form.        Jason Peterson

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.