Mozart: Piano Sonatas K. 310-311 & 330-333 Angela Hewitt

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Piano Sonata No. 9 in D Major, K. 311:
• 1 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 9 in D Major, K. 311: I. Allegro con spirito 06:59
• 2 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 9 in D Major, K. 311: II. Andante con espressione 05:27
• 3 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 9 in D Major, K. 311: III. Rondo. Allegro 06:44
• 4 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 8 in A Minor, K. 310: I. Allegro maestoso 08:52
• 5 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 8 in A Minor, K. 310: II. Andante cantabile con espressione 09:31
• 6 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 8 in A Minor, K. 310: III. Presto 03:16
• 7 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 10 in C Major, K. 330: I. Allegro moderato 10:16
• 8 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 10 in C Major, K. 330: II. Andante cantabile 06:18
• 9 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 10 in C Major, K. 330: III. Allegretto 05:44
• Fantasia in C Minor, K. 396 (Arr. Stadler for Piano):
• 10 Mozart: Fantasia in C Minor, K. 396 (Arr. Stadler for Piano) 11:16
• Fantasia in D Minor, K. 397:
• 11 Mozart: Fantasia in D Minor, K. 397 06:06
• Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331:
• 12 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331: Ia. Theme. Andante grazioso 01:42
• 13 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331: Ib. Var. 1 01:38
• 14 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331: Ic. Var. 2 01:39
• 15 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331: Id. Var. 3 01:49
• 16 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331: Ie. Var. 4 01:39
• 17 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331: If. Var. 5 03:53
• 18 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331: Ig. Var. 6 01:24
• 19 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331: II. Menuetto - Trio - Menuetto da capo 06:07
• 20 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331: III. Alla Turca. Allegretto 03:45
• 21 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 12 in F Major, K. 332: I. Allegro 10:49
• 22 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 12 in F Major, K. 332: II. Adagio 04:53
• 23 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 12 in F Major, K. 332: III. Allegro assai 07:55
• Piano Sonata No. 13 in B-Flat Major, K. 333:
• 24 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 13 in B-Flat Major, K. 333: I. Allegro 10:49
• 25 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 13 in B-Flat Major, K. 333: II. Andante cantabile 10:23
• 26 Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 13 in B-Flat Major, K. 333: III. Allegretto grazioso 06:47
• Total Runtime 02:35:41

Info for Mozart: Piano Sonatas K. 310-311 & 330-333

Angela Hewitt’s voyage of discovery through Mozart’s piano sonatas is proving a joy, the works sounding newly minted in vital, alert accounts which respect their scale and sensibility while revealing influences of Mozart’s orchestral and concerto writing of the period.

On 23 September 1777, at the age of twenty-one, Mozart left home for the first time without his father. Unhappy in Salzburg, he set out to find some steady employment. His only travelling companion was his mother. He was not to see his father again for sixteen months, and when he did finally return to Salzburg, tragically he was alone.

After spending time in Munich and Augsburg, Mozart and his mother arrived in Mannheim at the end of October. In those days, the Mannheim Orchestra was one of the most famous and innovative in Europe. The virtuosi who occupied its ranks were described by the English musician Charles Burney as being like ‘an army of generals’. Their playing came alive with big crescendi and diminuendi, and the wind section was given much more importance than ever before. Mozart failed to get a job there, but kept busy performing and teaching—most notably the soprano Aloysia Weber, then sixteen years old, with whom he promptly fell in love. He even put it to his father that perhaps he could accompany her to Italy to help her become a prima donna; needless to say, his father put an end to that far-fetched idea extremely quickly, and wrote to him: ‘Off with you to Paris!’

Before he left for France, however, he composed his Sonata in D major, K311. Its opening is not dissimilar to that of his previous D major sonata, K284. A sprightly allegro con spirito opens the work. Two characters engage in dialogue at the start—one questioning the other, and the whole thing ending in a clatter of repeated A major chords. A more lyrical, pleading theme then enters, but before long they’re at it again, the right hand crossing over the left and taking on the role of both characters. A noisy climax is followed by a descending figure in double sixths before the double bar, as if to say the whole argument didn’t really matter at all.

That sighing, descending figure (a typical Mannheim feature) then becomes the focus of the development section. It’s passed from hand to hand, from voice to voice, finally ending up together again in sixths. The other Mannheim ‘trick’ that appears in this movement is the reversed recapitulation, in which the opening theme only reappears in bar 99, almost at the end of the piece. Nothing in Mozart is done by the book. There are always surprises along the way. ...

Angela Hewitt, piano

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