Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 12/26/2006, uploaded on 01/11/2009

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 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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Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor, KV 304            Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart   

 I. Allegro; II. Tempo di menuetto                                                                      

2006 marks the 15^th anniversary of my debut as a professional musician.  More than anything I wanted to include a work of Mozart on my first recital.   That year, 1991, was the 200^th anniversary of the death of Mozart, and this year marks the 250^th anniversary of his birth.  I have always felt an emotional closeness to the music of Mozart and I still try to program his sonatas at every opportunity.  The sonata that I have chosen for this afternoon is in E minor: Mozart's only instrumental work in that key. It begins unlike any other composition of his, with a somber theme, piano, stated in stark octaves; this austere theme is later harmonized in a variety of ways, altering quite surprisingly its expressive sense. But the tone of the movement remains fundamentally somber. The second movement is a minuet, curiously plaintive in tone, with a soft, gentle, consolatory trio in the major mode. Some commentators associate this work with the emotions Mozart experienced upon his mother's death during the summer of 1778. The whole sonata dwells in an emotional world unlike that of any other Mozart piece. He uncovers a world of pathos, of sensibility, and it is hard to imagine that this event had not inspired the writing of this unusual work.     Andrew Kohji Taylor

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Courtesy of International Music Foundation.

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