SIGNALS and SUSPENSIONS - Mozart Sonata no. 8 in A minor (K.310) mvt 1 - Analysis 

Your immense intellectual effort of combining playing and analyzing the harmonics of the piece while keeping a joyous persona is deeply appreciated . Many of us have lost access to private lessons in the Covid 19 era , thus your teaching is so profoundly helpful. Thank you .

Whoohoo, my favourite minor sonata, my mum bought me a t-shirt with the opening bars on the front, I loved that t-shirt

This is one of my favorite Mozart sonatas. If I had to say what my absolute favorite Mozart sonata is though, I would say it’s the C minor sonata of his, also dramatic and foreshadowing Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata, which is my favorite Beethoven sonata. And my second favorite would be his Bb major sonata K 333. I don’t know if it’s just by coincidence that my 2 favorite Mozart sonatas are in my 2 favorite keys, Bb major and C minor but these are some things I love about each sonata: C Minor Sonata K 457: - More Beethovenian treatment(octave heavy, sudden dynamics) -> This is something I notice so often in C minor, both before and after Beethoven - Triplets - False sense of security at the start of the extremely short development section of Movement 1(starts on C major but quickly goes to F minor for a lot of it) - Coda separated from the rest of the first movement by a repeat of the development and recapitulation - Little snippets of the Fate Motive that has been developed at least since Bach’s WTC II and continuing to be developed to this day show up in Movement 1 - Left hand melodic in Movement 2 - Left hand echoing right hand - Cadenzas, 4 of them in Movement 2 - Energy of the third movement, not unlike the Pathetique Sonata Rondo(it even has the diminished seventh retransition used in the Pathetique Sonata Rondo) Bb Major Sonata K 333: - A sort of skipping feel through the whole first movement, even with the stepwise motion, almost feels like a melody of a minuet, but in Sonata Form - Kind of minor key touch near the end of the exposition of the first movement, foreshadowing the minor key circle of fifths in the development(similar in ways to the much earlier A minor sonata’s development you analyzed here) - Snippets of the Fate Motive show up yet again, but in the second movement - Again a sort of dance feel, sort of in between a Sarabande and a Minuet(Slow like a Sarabande, but the melody and countermelody is more like a Minuet) - Briefly in Minor before a more ornamented A section comes back - Dance-like Rondo(seriously, the whole sonata feels like something I could dance to), which I don’t notice a dance-like character to a lot of Mozart’s Rondos, they either seem too slow(Rondo in A minor K 511), too short(K 545 rondo), too serious(Minor key rondos in general), too march-like(Rondo alla Turka), or too much like the sonata form first movement that precedes it to have that dance-like character. Not the rondo of K 333. I say rondo here, but really, it’s almost like Sonata form, something that I refer to as Quasi Sonata Form. I see this Sonata with a dance-like character as in K 333 taken to the other extreme in Chopin’s Grande Valse Brilliante op. 18, a dance with a sonata-like character, which Grande Valse Brilliante happens to be my favorite Chopin waltz.

Mozart also composed another Klavier concerto in a minor key (number ‘24’ in c-minor, K. 491) completed in March 1786 just before the completion & rehearsals of ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ K. 492) which premiered on 1 May 1786 in Vienna. M. was no stranger to composing in minor keys in ev’ry genre - and even from his child-prodigy years in his London ‘test improvisations’ of May 1765 when being examined by Dr Daines Baines Barrington at the Mozart residence at 180 Ebury Street, London (just west of today’s ‘Pimlico’) when he was asked to ‘improvise an ‘Aria of Rage such as might be sung at the Opera, set upon the word ‘furioso’ -in which’ (according to Barrington s later report to the Royal Society) ‘the little Boy had work’d himself up to such a fever-pitch that he beat his Harpsichord like a Person [daemon] possess’d - rising some Times in his Chair…’ & later that same afternoon his proud father Leopold wrote down this ‘furious’ examination piece in his son’s patch-book as K. 15g in g-minor) Mozart was nine years old & by then had already composed SIX sinfonias in the stile of J.C. Bach & Carl Friedrich Abel in London… When asked to ‘provide an Example of your contrapuntal choral Skill’ by the Elector of Mannheim in March 1775 whilst in Munich for the production of La finta Giardiniera k.196 (written between October & December 1774 & premiering during the Munich Carnival Season on 7 Jan 1775) M. produced the astonishing ‘Misericordias Domini’ K.222 in d-minor completed 5-days later and his g-minor Sinfonia drafted in Vienna in August 1773 K. 183 and his String Quarter in d-minor K. 173 both finished during a ‘3-month summer visit’ shews he was just at home with composing in minor keys as with major ones. On 28 August 1784 M. seems to have come down with a streptococcal infection in Vienna which brought on ‘rheumatic pains’ and edema (signaling acute renal failure) and was attended & bled for 3-days by the young FreeMason & surgeon at the Vienna Hospital Dr Barisani whilst Mozart lay in an intermittent coma for 3-days (30 August to 3 Sept 1784)-suffering from ‘a chill on the kidneys’- Now we do not know for sure if he had experienced an NDE at the beginning of September 1784 but we can say starting in late 1784 his music was much more ‘personal’ & very different from earlier works that were designed to cater to the public taste in Vienna - including many more-than-normal compositions conceived in minor keys… When M. recover’d the following week c. 12 Sept 1784 he immediately began his Verzeichnuess aller meiner Werke (= a catalogue of his own compositions) which he had ‘backdated to February 1784 with the Klavier & Wind Quartet K. 452 in E-flat as his first entry … The increasing number of compositions & draft-sketches (some completed over a full year later) in minor-keys is noticeable including a trio in d-minor K. 442 compleated in November 1784 the Klavier Sonata in c-minor K. 457 completed in early 1785 and his ‘Masonic Funeral Musick’ in c-minor (July, revised & Re-us’d in November 1785) Fantasia in c-minor K. 475 completed in October 1786 as well as the ‘daemonick’ d-minor tonality’ that permeates so much of his opera ‘Don Giovanni’ K. 527 (completed on the evening of 27/28 October 1787) The list of minor-key compositions by Mozart is astonishing - including the 2 great organ works (the Funeral Musick K.594 of Nov 1790 & the Fantasia & Fugue K. 608 of February 1791 both in the rare key of f-minor) and of course the famous ‘Pamina’s Lament’ & the two d-minor soprano workhorses for The Queen of the Night in Die Zauberfloete & of course the Requiem Fragment all in d-minor exposes the persistent lie among common audiences that ‘Mozart wrote pretty music like a child’ -when the truth is anything but …

My favourite sonata from Mozart. But also the K. 333

Thanks for posting! I love your videos and I watch them all!! Love from Brazil! ❤️

Thank you!! this is a great analysis. My son 12 yrs old started playing this and although I played many Mozarts sonata never played this so was confusing to listen when he practices it as I was trying to break it down. You explain it so well now I can listen to it as the way you explained it and tell my son too!! Thank you Thank you!!

Great insightful video. Enlightened by a good amount of technical details.

Your videos are awesome. Your enthusiasm is communicative, thanks and good luck to your channel!

Bravo. You are very clear in your explaining. I'm a 16 years old hobby musician and your teachings have thaught and are teaching me a lot. And I always smile when you use the emoticons. They are very good for showing the emotion and really funny. Keep on doing this great job!

Thank you Henrick, I really enjoyed the journey through this Sonata. Very Good.

I just love Mozart! Practice on the piano every day both chords and classic. Classic is though my favorite to play! 😀

Yes, by far my favourite Mozart sonata as well; One of my very favourite pieces in general actually, and my biggest mistake as a beginner was trying to learn this... I kept trying and it was so above my level, but after months I managed to pull off the entire exposition, and then turned the page to that 4-voice part in the development and I went "my eyes hurt just from looking at this, that's it I'll be a good boy and stick to minuet in G from now on". ~6 months have passed since then, and it's starting to look a lot more doable now, it shouldn't be too much harder than Chopin Op64 N2. I'm getting there, I feel it...

That was a brilliant explanation and elucidation of this beautiful piece. Your contributions are so helpful and valuable and appreciated. Thank you.

I love this sonata! Great analysis 👍

You forgot two AMAZING solo piano pieces, the most romantic pieces Mozart EVER wrote in the minor": Rondo in a minor K 511 and Adagio in B minor K 540. A part from that, great tutorial, thanks for sharing.

The piano concerto no 20 is my favourite Mozart concerto. I LOVE it

I love how you can't stop playing it :D

Amazing video and analysis Henrik!

Спасибо Вам огромное! И спасибо за русские субтитры. Очень помогли!

i was waiting for this, amazing!!

Thank you for this video!

Fantastic video!

The way the section of the development following the German sixth chord is constructed is almost exactly the same as in the E minor violin sonata composed at the same time. He uses the same kind of suspensions there with a similar poyphony and also repeats it at the same intervals. That sonata is also said to be related to the death of his Mother.

Mozart didn't write too often in minor key, but really warmed to his work when he did. His extreme effectiveness in minor keys would be more remarked if he weren't also proficient in everything else.

Sooo underrated channel

Learning this sonata in my college with also two Debussy's Prelude (3months). Quite a unusually heavy and dramatic one, completly unique but yet so clear as we know our dear mozart. I've decided to bring it more of a romantico-modern interpretation ( maybe Debussy is getting into my head a bit too much ) ( despite the almost bach*ian* {im not english idk the translation} idealization of the sonata many have ). Currently working on considering the pedal as its own story between the piece itself. Giving it a whole other feeling and depth

The mispelled C7 could be a tritone sub to the dominant of B major, C7 and F#7 have A# so the C7 is a tritone substitution for F#7, the dominant leading to B major.

Bravissimo, complimenti

26:00 this makes me think of it as a major inspiration for Beethoven's Kreutzer sonata.

I think the grace notes in Mozart are appoggiaturas. Look at the beginning of the rondo alla turca from sonata 11 and the second movement of piano concero 21 in particular.

muy bueno el video amigo! tocas el piano como un animal!! felicitaciones!

brillant video!!

You forgot to mention the C minor concerto at the beginning of the video. I love the A minor sonata

I actually had fun sight reading the first 4 pages!

Good video, I think you left out the C minor piano concerto on the list of minor works :)

Also worth a look: Allegro in G minor, K590d (previously K312, possibly the first movement of a planned sonata), very Haydnesque. Rondo in A minor, K511, very chromatic, hard to find the right tempo. Adagio in B minor, K540, tragic sonata form movement.

18:50 Interestingly this is the only movement in all the Mozart solo piano sonatas where he uses fortissimo markings (there is not even a single fortissomo in the rather "Beethovinian" C minor sonata!).

That upright sounds amazing! What model/year is it?

Have you ever heard the development section in meantone? It's terrifying. It's a scream of pain.

excellent

Bruh the Rondo in A minor and the adagio in B minor need an honorable mention! INDISPENSABLE masterpieces

Can you explain show us what fingering is right in this piece please

Maybe you can explain to me why you play the 2nd measure the way you do. This is a different interpretation of this particular grace note from other performers such as Daniel Barenboim. Thank you.

nice video!Can you break down the trills please? 20:23

❤️thanks

¿Cómo se cifra el 2 acorde del primer movimiento de la Sonata? Gracias

Have you thought about visiting Salzburg ?! 😁👏👍

Do you think you could do a video about Prelude in C# Minor by Rachmaninoff?

This appoggiatura from a to g#, is it really a fast one? I would play it as an eigth note. Later in the piece, it's written out and there it's an eighth note.

I love Mozart. That you, God, for him :)

Where have you been my entire life

May I ask why you use Breitkopf & Härtel as opposed to the more legible Bärenreiter scores? Just out of interest. You can get Mozart scores from the Digital Mozart Edition (Bärenreiter scores) from here: dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/nmapub_srch.php?l=2

My favourite sonata ever!!!

Someone arrange Zappa for solo piano plz

You forgot to name the keyboard concerto in C minor among Mozart's minor works

I would love to see a sonata secret for gnossienne no.1

Please, can you set a pause for the first topic for me?

you forgot to mention the c minor concerto :p

And Concerto for Piano in C minor!!!

Why would you ever start with "I'm not gonna lie"? Why do people do that? I love this sonata as well. It's unlike his others.

Strålande :)

Only 2 sonatas in minor and it is a shame he’s toooio good in minor 🎼🎹🗝

Por que mide la apoyatura como si fuera un cuarto de la nota que sigue, en LA-SOL# si la apoyatura convierte a LA-SOL como dos corcheas en vez de ser SOL# una negra, me parece que lo mide mal. Si estuviese LA con una barra transversal en el corchete entonces se tocaría como el lo toca , dándole 1/4 del valor. Otros pianistas no lo miden así.

Damn, I played this for the conservatory access and it was a disaster. :/

1: 13. "the most famous in d-minor" ? Surely you didn't say that for the g-minor symphonies. Probably just the accent, as you certainly are an expert. Ever play #40 in a 2-piano version?

15:42 ff? pp? With Mozart? It’s like the ending of Mozart’s D minor Fantaisia, I’m suspicious about this. Since Mozart never uses ff or pp in his music.

Mozart's two minor key sonatas are in my opinion by far his greatest. I might even go as far as to say they are the only two that are artistically, rather than aristocratically, conceived.

Why do we have to keep talking about Galant music in terms of Roman numerals?! It means literally nothing while discussing Mozart. You’ve wasted an entire video talking in a different language and largely incorrect and it would take too long to correct all the errors in this video. Better to learn partimento, schema theory and speak in a Galant language.