Classical Music | Piano Music

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor, K. 457  Play

Riyad Nicolas Piano

Recorded on 08/17/2016, uploaded on 04/02/2017

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Mozart finished composing this Sonata in 1784 during his residence in Vienna after he moved from Salzburg. He dedicated the Sonata to one of his pupils in Vienna , Therese van Trattner.

He composed six sonatas during that time, but this was perhaps one of the most personal because of its tonality in C minor. Mozart was extremely careful in choosing his tonalities and this Sonata is only one of two in the minor key. The other is K 310 in A minor, written six years earlier, around the time of the death of Mozart's mother.

This sonata feels prophetic of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata in C minor. This is evident especially in the spacious second movement, which Mozart orchestrates very carefully. The outer movements have two uncommon codas which call for crossing hands and give a dramatic and oratorical mood to the Sonata.      Riyad Nicolas