Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 12/19/2006, uploaded on 01/21/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

One of Mozart's most recognizable compositions, the Piano Sonata No. 10 in C major, K. 330 is the first of a set of three sonatas composed during 1783. Having settled in Vienna in 1781, a large part of Mozart's income was from giving piano lessons, mostly to members of the aristocratic circle. It is likely the Piano Sonata No. 10 and its two siblings were written for the purpose of instruction.

The first movement is light and energetic, evidenced by Mozart's choice of two-four time with thirty-second notes instead of the more usual (and perhaps more readable) cut-time with sixteenths. It is, for the most part, a regularly constructed sonata form. The two principal themes are rather homogenous, both alternating between legato and staccato over an energetic bass. Quite interestingly, the recapitulation of the second theme begins in the key of the dominant (G major), but then "corrects" itself by shifting suddenly back to the tonic key. 

Marked specifically with the modifier "cantabile" (song-like), the central Andante is a fine example of Mozart's lyrical gift. Of a large ternary design, the opening section consists of a lengthy twenty-bar melody with a characteristic repeated-note motif and broken into two repeated sections. The middle section turns to the key of the tonic minor and begins with a doleful melody reminiscent of the preceding section. At the conclusion of the recapitulation of the opening F major section, the music trails off and Mozart's original ending to the movement has been lost. The ending as it exists, a restatement of the second theme in F major, is a "best guess" at what Mozart would have done.

Sonata in C Major, K. 330               Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Allegro moderato  -- Andante cantabile -- Allegretto

One of the most popular of the Mozart piano sonatas, the C Major is a tight-knit work of charm and playfulness.  The first movement opens with a lively melody, which Mozart does not develop further in the development section.  Rather, he presents sporadic fragments of the first theme with new material, which then shortly leads to recapitulation, where he uses variations of the opening material.  The Andante cantabile is one of the most beautiful, yet simple movements of all Mozart's sonatas.  It opens with a choral-like theme, which takes a turn to the minor, melancholy mood before the return of the chorale theme.  This minor variation gives way at the end to an intimately glorious final statement in its original major key.  The concluding Allegretto movement is a playful dance, full of humor and wit.     Soyeon Lee

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.