Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 07/07/2010, uploaded on 01/04/2011

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 fourth of the set, the Sonata in E minor, K. 304, and the only one in a minor key, is often considered Mozart's musical response to the death of his mother in July 1778. Indeed, the sonata is at times intensely expressive, particularly in the tender melody of the last movement.

The two-movement sonata opens in an austere manner with a plaintive melody given in octaves by the two instruments. Following an intense outburst of grief, the melody is repeated again in the violin, with the special indication "espressivo," over a somber harmonic accompaniment in the piano. The second theme, though shifting to the key of the relative major, offers little in the way consolation and one can sense the dark cloud of the opening theme still overhead. Though well structured, the movement's sonata form seems at times that it will inevitably crack under its emotional strain. Interestingly, the recapitulation, after firmly grounding itself in the tonic key, comes to a close with a half cadence. A brief coda necessarily concludes the movement with a passage very similar to the closing of the first theme during the exposition.

The final movement, marked Tempo di Menuetto, comes off as resigned melancholy in the wake of the emotional first movement. Its languid melody is restrained but also of entrancing beauty, making the finale the better of the two movements. A brief moment of consolation is reached in the E major trio section. The chorale-like melody sounds like a solemn hymn and its subsequent repetition in the violin is quite tender. The respite is only temporary and a truncated restatement of the opening E minor section brings the sonata to a close.        Joseph DuBose

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Violin Sonata in E minor, K. 304    W. A. Mozart

The fourth of seven sonatas for piano and violin composed by Mozart in Mannheim and Paris during 1778, the e minor Sonata is the only one in a minor key. Recent paper dating has shown that while the opening Allegro was composed in Mannheim, the following Tempo di Menuetto was composed in Paris, where Mozart and his mother finally arrived on March 23. Like six of the seven sonati from this time, K. 304 has only two movements, but it departs from the distinctly domestic feel of the first three works in finding a new profundity of dramatic expression.

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.