Mozart: Piano Sonatas, K. 280, K. 333, K. 457, And K. 475

Description

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)Piano Sonatas, Vol. 5 Sonata in F Major, K. 280 Sonata in B Flat Major, K. 333 Fantasia in C Minor, K. 475 Sonata in C Minor, K. 457Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756, theyoungest child of Leopold Mozart, author of a well known treatise on violin-playing and amusician in the service of the ruling Archbishop. Leopold Mozart was to sacrifice his owncareer in order to foster the God-given genius he soon perceived in his son. A childhoodspent in successful tours throughout Europe, in which the young Mozart demonstrated hisskill on the violin, and on the keyboard in improvisation and in performance with hissister Nannerl was followed by a less satisfactory adolescence at home in Salzburg.Mozart's talent was none the 1ess, but there seemed little opportunity at home,particularly after the death of the old Archbishop and the succession of a less indulgentpatron. In 1777 Mozart and his father, now Vice-Kapellmeister, were refused leave totravel, and Mozart himself resigned his position as Konzertmeister of the court orchestraand set out, accompanied on I y by his mother, to seek his fortune elsewhere. The journeytook him to Augsburg, to Munich and eventually to Paris, but only after a prolonged stayin Mannheim, the seat of the Elector Palatine, famous for its musical establishment.In Mannheim Mozart made many friends among the musicians atcourt, but neither here nor in any of the other places he visited was there a suitableposition for him. The following year, after the death of his mother in Paris, he made hisway slowly back to Salzburg, where his father had found him another position at court thathe retained until 1781, when he found final precarious independence in Vienna. Thefollowing year he married the penniless younger sister of a singer on whom he had firstset his heart in Mannheim and won initial success with his German opera Die Entf??hrung aus dem Serail. There were pupils andsubscription concerts, and chances to arouse the admiration of fashionable audiences byhis skill as composer and keyboard-player in a new series of piano concertos. By the endof the decade, however, his popularity had waned, although there were signs of a change offortune in the success of a new German opera, DieZauberflote (The Magic Flute), which was still running at the time of hissudden death in December 1791.In December 1774 Mozart and his father travelled to Munich forthe staging of the former's new opera, La fintagiardiniera, which was mounted in January with considerable success. In the newyear Mozart w rote a set of six piano sonatas, which were to prove of considerable use inhis future travels. The second of the set, in F major, opens with a theme, the bass ofwhich is inverted to introduce the second subject in a movement that is in the customarytripartite classical form. The F minor Adagio is in agentie siciliano rhythm and leads toa final Presto in which the second theme serves to introduce the brief centr