Mozart, Piano Sonata No 2, in F major

The second trip to Vienna of Leopold Mozart and his son Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was as fruitless as the first one. Accompanying their patron Prince-Archbishop Colloredo they arrived there in the summer of 1773 and visited professors and musicians of the court. Even the empress was kind enough to receive them, but getting a place at the imperial court was not possible.
The meager fruits were already beginning to become habitual for the Mozart family. This is how Leopold describes it in a letter to his wife: "... Her Majesty the Empress was very kind to us, but that was all."

Back in Salzburg
Despite all this, Leopold and Wolfgang resumed life in Salzburg as if nothing had happened. Better yet, they made some important decisions: they moved to a larger, more comfortable house in the new part of town. As a consequence, their friendships rose in rank; after all, they had just completed a visit to the court in Vienna, where they had been greeted by the empress.

In Munich

These months of familiar peace in the region resulted in an essential series of compositions. Among them stand out the five piano sonatas, K. 279 to K. 283, although some scholars date these compositions to the following year, 1775, during the three months that the young 19-year-old maestro stayed in Munich, on the occasion of the premiere of his opera buffa La Finta Giardiniera, a work composed at the request of the court, obtaining with it, by the way, a formidable success.

At this point, the master had a wealth of creative experience. Nevertheless, this first group of piano pieces is the first major attempt that the young Mozart undertook in the genre of piano sonatas, for which he would compose a total of twenty-five works.

Sonata No. 2 in F major, K. 280 - Movements

Haydn's influence is clear, especially in the outer movements. The second movement is the most Mozartian, a tender and melancholic melody in F minor, stretching for almost ten minutes. As a curious note, of all Mozart's sonatas, it is the only slow movement written in a minor key.

The movements are three, organized in the typical Italian manner: fast-slow-fast.
00        Allegro assai

07:09  Adagio

16:50  Presto

The performance is by the French artist Mathilde Handelsman.