I want to tell you about pianist Lars Vogt who released an album of Piano Sonatas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). In this album, two baroque-influenced early sonatas are coupled together with the touching A minor Sonata, K310 – written at the time of the composer’s mother’s death – and the delightful, Sonata K333.
I listened to these four sonatas yesterday, and I was delighted. Mr. Vogt plays these works beautifully! Highly sensitive playing, with amazing dynamics and excellent silent spaces between notes and phrases…
Mozart wrote Piano Sonatas K280 and K281 (nos. 2 & 3) most likely in 1774, at the age of 18. The elements of Baroque influence are clearly evident in the K280 Sonata. A prominent feature in the K281 Sonata is the beautiful slow-movement, Andante amoroso.
The K310 Sonata (no.8) was written four years later, during the summer of 1778, and is written in a minor key: a rarity among Mozart’s Sonatas. Yet the minor key may have been used to communicate Mozart’s sadness about the death of Mozart’s mother in Paris during the same year…
The K333 was published in 1784, but the time of its composition might have been earlier. This joyful work with virtuosic passages can be described almost as a Piano Concerto for the solo piano.
Here is Mr. Vogt in a performance of the Sonata K. 333 by Mozart:
