Mozart Complete Sonatas & Variations for Piano & Violin

Three of the Piano and Violin Sonatas on this recording belong to the group commonly referred to as the “Auemhammer set.” Josepha Barbara Auemhammer (1758–1826) was a fine pianist and studied with Mozart starting in 1781. After settling in Vienna, Mozart included his KV296, which was dedicated to her (labeled as “Opus 2” and completed in Salzburg for Artaria publication) along with KV376–380. Although even later piano and violin sonatas were published as being a “sonata for fortepiano, or harpsichord, with violin accompaniment” an anonymous reviewer wrote in 1783: “The violin accompaniment is so ingeniously combined with the piano part that both instruments are continuously employed, and thus these sonatas demand a violinist as accomplished as a pianist.”

In the Sonata KV377 in F major, both instruments are heard at the very beginning of the Allegro with the piano stating the main melody. However, the violin takes over this melody only nine bars later. The Sonata has a tremendous amount of energy. The second movement consists of six inventive variations, with the violin having a dominant role in the second as well as most of the fifth. In variation five and the concluding Siciliano in 6/8 meter, the piano and violin trade materials back and forth. In the concluding Minuet and Trio, the violin plays more of an accompanying role void of the virtuosic passages written in the piano, and the violin only periodically soars above the piano’s highest register. Mozart dated the completion of KV481 in his own catalog on December 12, 1785, just four days before listing his Piano Concerto, KV482, in the same key of E flat major. The Sonata’s first movement is very quick, marked Molto Allegro, and contains a plethora of beautiful contrasting themes, shared equally between the instruments. For its development, Mozart does not use any of this wealth of material and instead bases that central section on a motif of four long notes that recur in the Coda. The profound and slow second movement is one of the most experimental that Mozart ever created. There are frequent modulations from the home key of A flat major. When he moves to the distant Neapolitan (flattened second) key of A major, he actually notates it with the key signature of three sharps. That same notation occurs near the end of the movement when Mozart moves the material from A flat major to the lowered sixth degree key of E major and back to the home key within six bars. The third movement is in variation structure with a theme consisting of an 8-bar first half and a 12-bar second half, each of which is repeated. The theme is presented in octaves between the violin and the pianist’s right hand. Mozart keeps the basic structure until the fifth variation where he writes out a varied reprise for each half and then adds a brilliant codetta to lead to the final gigue-like variation. It too, is written out in full with an extensive coda added. Sonata KV376 in F major establishes the key immediately with three-note triple stops for the violin and six-note chords for the pianist. The piano then presents the main melody of the first movement, but the violin takes it over in the ninth bar. Often the instruments carry a dialogue with each other, tossing a gesture from one to the other. The slow second movement begins with the violin providing a murmuring, inner, register line to the pianist’s right-hand melody before taking over the theme. The pianist presents the sparkling theme of the final Rondo, but soon the violinist participates fully in a dialogue of motifs. The contrasting sections in the basic keys of D minor and then B flat major contain demanding technical, virtuosic passages for both musicians before the final, varied return of the rondo theme leads to a quiet ending.

The work, known as KV379, was supposedly written by Mozart in one hour. In a letter to his father, he describes a concert given on the April 8, 1781 by saying it included “a sonata with violin accompaniment for myself which I composed last night between 11 and 12 but in order to be able to finish it, I only wrote out the accompaniment and retained my own part in my head.” That sonata, written for violinist Antonio Brunetti, the concertmaster of the Salzburg court orchestra, was revised considerably before its publication. The first movement opens with a dramatic, long Adagio in G major, but then moves to its Allegro in G minor, a passionate key for the composer. The final movement is in variation structure with a song-like, simple theme consisting of two, eight-bar sections, each to be repeated. The fourth variation returns to G minor while the fifth (back in the main, major key) is a slow Adagio. The final variation, although not marked as such in the score, is an Allegretto with an added coda.

— Dr. Elaine Keillor, C.M. ARCT, PhD, Hon. Mus. Doc. Distinguished Research Professor Emerita, Carleton University