In a sudden burst of composure and balance, in early 1784 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began a meticulous recording of his works. Thanks to this, we know today that Sonata No. 14 in C minor was completed on October 14 of that year. At least, it entered his private catalog with that date. Six months later, Mozart added to this record a new piano work, the Fantasia in C minor. Both pieces were sent in 1785 to his publisher in Vienna, the Artaria publishing house, to be published together as Opus 11, with the title "Fantasie et Sonate pour le Forte-Piano", and the opus dedicated to Therese von Trattner.
The Mozart family moves
For reasons that have never been fully elucidated, the Mozart family moved several times while living in Vienna. The years 1784-85 find them renting a house owned by Johann von Trattner, a Viennese bookseller and publisher who had built a small empire within the other empire thanks to a privilege granted by Maria Theresa that gave him the exclusive right to print all the textbooks required by the schools in and around Austria.
Therese von Trattner, dedicatée
Von Trattner was thus an impetuous and wealthy businessman, a prominent member of the rising bourgeoisie who could acquire with no hesitation a modern forte-piano for the enjoyment and solace of his family... An expensive Stein, for example, Mozart's favorite piano, which, however, he could never access. Unless the Trattner family piano had been precisely a Stein. Yes, because as befitted their interests and social status, Therese, Trattner's wife, became Mozart's pupil. And it is to her that the Sonata is dedicated, along with the Fantasia, of course, to give more soar to the offering.
The Sonata in C minor is the last of the five sonatas grouped in a "sonatistic" period that goes from 1782 (Mozart just settled in Vienna) to 1784. This production had no other purpose than to compose for his own satisfaction or for the practice of his students. Mozart was aware that the sonata form was the most complete of the "home" musical forms, the type of pieces intended for the enjoyment and solace of families, on an intimate level. Therese von Trattner, we suppose, would not have been out of place.
The Sonata in C minor is the last of the five sonatas grouped in a "sonatistic" period that goes from 1782 (Mozart just settled in Vienna) to 1784. This production had no other purpose than to compose for his own satisfaction or for the practice of his students. Mozart was aware that the sonata form was the most complete of the "home" musical forms, the type of pieces intended for the enjoyment and solace of families, on an intimate level. Therese von Trattner, we suppose, would not have been out of place.
Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457
Ludwig von Köchel himself, the compiler of Mozart's work in the mid-nineteenth century, catalogued the work as the most important of the twenty-two piano sonatas composed by the genius of Salzburg for solo piano. Lasting around fifteen minutes in length, it exhibits a passion and intensity unusual for Mozart (we are talking about his sonatas), foreshadowing what the genre would later become in the hands of the subsequent genius, Beethoven. Moreover, in the noble and suffering adagio cantabile it is not difficult to hear "anticipations" of the adagio from the Pathetique Sonata, which would be released fifteen years later.
Movements
Like all Mozart's piano concertos, it is in three movements following the classical scheme: fast-slow-fast.
00:00 Allegro
08:26 Adagio cantabile
17:35 Allegro assai
The rendition is by the remarkable Austrian pianist and poet Alfred Brendel.
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