Accompanied by his mother, Mozart had set out from Salzburg in September 1777 in search of the position his father was sure would bring him fame. Mozart did not return to Salzburg until January 1779, and the journey – which had taken him through Mannheim, Paris, and Munich – can hardly be regarded as a success: Mozart spent too much money and found no position at all. The true cataclysm, though, was that his mother became ill and died in Paris in July 1778.
Mozart had, however, written seven violin sonatas during this trip, and he published six of these in Paris. The first four were written in Mannheim, but the final two were composed in Paris sometime in 1778. The Sonata in E minor – the only one of Mozart’s numerous violin sonatas in a minor key – is amazing music, full of a depth of feeling absent from the other five sonatas in the set, and few commentators have been able to resist associating it with the death of Mozart’s mother, though there is no way to know whether it was written before or after her final illness.
Like many of the other sonatas from this set, it is in only two movements. The Allegro takes its character from the somber opening theme, played in unison by violin and piano.
Mozart marks the second movement Tempo di Minuetto, but this music is far more serious than most Minuets.
Here are Lambert Orkis, piano, and Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin to perform this amazing work:
