Classical Music | Violin Music

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Sonata No. 19 for Violin and Piano in E-flat Major, K 302 Play Play

Tessa Lark	Violin
Ron Regev	Piano

Recorded on 07/01/2008, uploaded on 01/22/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Having resigned his post in Salzburg, Mozart, accompanied by his mother, set out in search of new employment. His journey, which started in September 1777 and lasted until January 1789, took him to Mannheim, Paris and Munich. During this time, he composed six sonatas for piano and violin that were later published in Paris in 1778. The set was likely inspired by a set of six sonatas for harpsichord and violin by the Dresden Kapellmeister Joseph Schuster that Mozart performed while in Mannheim. He described them as "not bad" and sent a copy of them home to his father and sister, as well as describing his intention to compose his own set of six sonatas in a similar style.

Opening with a stately descent through an E-flat major triad, the Violin Sonata in E-flat major, K. 302 (the second sonata of Mozart's set of six) immediately takes on the nobleness befitting of its key. One has only to think of Beethoven's Eroica (which, incidentally also adopts a triple meter for its first movement) or Mozart's own Sinfonia Concertante, K. 320 to recognize the sense of heroism in the Violin Sonata, K. 302. Following two statements of the movement's first theme, violin and piano together dramatically build through the E-flat major scale until the piano finally descends quickly back down in a brilliant run, releasing the climb's potential energy. A second theme follows in the dominant key, accompanied nearly throughout with a flourish of sixteenth notes in the piano. The development section initially takes its material from the closing measures of the first theme but soon the opening triadic descent comes to dominate—first in its original form and then in a rising inversion that leads to the recapitulation.

Following the heroic first movement, the Rondo finale adopts a graceful Andante tempo. Its principal melody is stately, beginning with a march-like dactylic rhythm and harmonized quite simply. Most of the movement passes by with a dignified and refined air. In its final bars, at the last statement of its principal melody, the heroism of the first movement returns. The theme, given by the violin, is doubled in the lower octave by the piano with full chords over a lively but stately bass. A brief coda, derived from the principal melody and accompanied by tremolandi in the violin, returns to the earlier dignified restraint and brings the sonata to a solemn close. Joseph DuBose
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Sonata No. 19 for Violin and Piano in E-flat major, K 302 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I. Allegro; II. Rondo: Andante Grazioso

Mozart's sonatas for violin and keyboard span a period of some twenty-five years. His first attempts at the form were made during his first extended tour of Europe. Four of these early sonatas were published in Paris in 1764. A set of six sonatas were written in The Hague in 1766 and published there. Mozart returned to the form twelve years later and completed four sonatas in Mannheim in 1777 and 1778. Another two were written in Paris in the early summer of the 1778. A group of four were written in the summer of 1781 in Vienna. And another four sonatas were written in Vienna between 1784 and 1788.

The Sonata in E flat major, K. 302, was written in Mannheim in February, 1778. The first subject is based on the descending notes of the triad, first answered by the keyboard and then by both instruments. The piano leads the way to the second subject and again into the development, which relies at first on subsidiary material from the exposition. First and second subject duly appear in recapitulation. The following Rondeau allows the piano to state the main theme first, followed by the violin. This principal theme frames two contrasting episodes. Tessa Lark