Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 07/25/2005, uploaded on 01/25/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

One of Mozart's most recognizable compositions, the Piano Sonata No. 10 in C major, K. 330 is the first of a set of three sonatas composed during 1783. Having settled in Vienna in 1781, a large part of Mozart's income was from giving piano lessons, mostly to members of the aristocratic circle. It is likely the Piano Sonata No. 10 and its two siblings were written for the purpose of instruction. 

The first movement is light and energetic, evidenced by Mozart's choice of two-four time with thirty-second notes instead of the more usual (and perhaps more readable) cut-time with sixteenths. It is, for the most part, a regularly constructed sonata form. The two principal themes are rather homogenous, both alternating between legato and staccato over an energetic bass. Quite interestingly, the recapitulation of the second theme begins in the key of the dominant (G major), but then "corrects" itself by shifting suddenly back to the tonic key.

Marked specifically with the modifier "cantabile" (song-like), the central Andante is a fine example of Mozart's lyrical gift. Of a large ternary design, the opening section consists of a lengthy twenty-bar melody with a characteristic repeated-note motif and broken into two repeated sections. The middle section turns to the key of the tonic minor and begins with a doleful melody reminiscent of the preceding section. At the conclusion of the recapitulation of the opening F major section, the music trails off and Mozart's original ending to the movement has been lost. The ending as it exists, a restatement of the second theme in F major, is a "best guess" at what Mozart would have done.

The Allegretto finale shares several elements with the first movement, including the latter's characteristic dotted-eighth rhythmic motif. Also in sonata form, the finale further shares the first movement's rather homogenous thematic material. The brief development section, however, introduces a new melodic material instead of using that given during the exposition. During the recapitulation, the same "false start" in the key of the dominant is made at the beginning of the second theme. A short coda and full chords bring the sonata to a triumphant ending.     Joseph DuBose

This work was written in Vienna between 1781 and 1783, and is probably one of the most recognizable sonatas, because of its simple and beautiful thematic material. The emotional culminating point is the middle section of the second movement, a sad lament in f minor, derived from the movement's main theme. This sonata has several outstanding recordings, and it is interesting to note that Horowitz chose this sonata in 1986 to open a recital in Moscow, marking his return after an absence of several decades, an event that attracted worldwide attention.    Alexandre Dossin

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.