Let's now move to the five Paris sonatas, written in the summer of 1778. First, we 'll concentrate in the famous A minor sonata K. 310, one of Mozart's sonatas that I love most, and which I have often performed. It is indeed an unusually (by M's standards) dark work, composed just after his mother's death...
"... this sonata is dramatic and full of unrelieved darkness; not even the turn towards C major at the end of the exposition section of the first movement can brighten the mood of this work. In the slow movement, con espressione, the development does begin somewhat consolingly, but the whole impression is governed by the uncanny agitation that comes just before the recapitulation. Uncanny, too, is the shadowy Presto, from beginning to end - despite the interpolation of a melody that begins in musette style. The key of A minor - and sometimes A major as well - is for Mozart the key of despair. No trace of "sociability" is left in this sonata. It is a most personal expression; one may look in vain in all the works of other composers of this period for anything similar. And it is easy to undestand the astonishment of M. de Saint-Foix over the fact that the public of Paris, the city of criticism, where the work appeared in 1782, greeted it silently and without comment".
Mozart Sonata in A minor K. 310, Dezso Ranki, piano. (I really like his playing - his Mozart in particular).
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