Mozart: Piano Sonatas - Volume I: Urtext edition Paperback – January 25, 2023

Mozart Piano Sonatas - Volumen I When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) set out on his long journey to Paris in 1774, he took the Sonatas K.279-284 with him and had the opportunity to perform them at his first stops in Munich, Augsburg, and Mannheim. In a letter to his father Leopold, dated 4 November 1777, he wrote: 'Today I have played my six sonatas at Cannabich's house'. Always referring to the pieces as the "difficult sonatas" whenever he mentioned them in correspondence. Possibly he named them as such because of the interpretative demands made on the piano by a profusion of dynamics and articulations. Shortly before leaving Paris, on 11 September 1778, Mozart wrote to his father: "I will sell 3 concertos [the Piano Concertos K. 238, 246 and 271] to the publisher of my sonatas [Violin sonatas for violin K. 301-306], provided he pays cash for them. And, if I can, I will do the same with my six difficult sonatas. Even if I don't get much, it will be better than nothing. On a journey you need money". It was not until 1784 that the Sonata in D major K. 284 was published by Torricella in Vienna, in a joint edition with K. 333 and the Violin Sonata K. 454; the other sonatas were not printed during Mozart's lifetime. In 1799 they were published by Breitkopf & Härtel in the so-called Oeuvres complettes as VII Sonates pour le Pianoforte / par / W.A. Mozart. The edition comprised the following seven sonatas: K. 309, 281, 279, 280, 282, 283, and 533/494. Due to numerous unauthorized additions to the musical text, this edition is of limited value as a source. Fortunately, the autographs of all six sonatas are preserved in the Biblioteka Jagiellopska in Kraków and were for this research the most important sources for these six sonatas. However, for the sonata KV 279 (189d) because the first movement [Allegro] of the autograph did not survive, the 1841 edition of Johann André by Offenbach was taken as the main source for this movement, since by that time the autograph was complete in André's possession and for this reason, we attribute greater importance than the first Breitkopf edition for our research.In the sonatas K. 309 (284b), 311 (284c), 310 (300d) K. 311 The first Heina edition, Paris, was used; probably published in 1778. - K. 309: Copy based on the autograph, presumably by Mozart's father Leopold. - K. 311: Autograph. K. 310: Autograph and Edition: Mannheim: Götz, n.d. (after 1783). In the case of the dynamics, they are taken from the above-mentioned manuscript.In this volume, we have made a comprehensive revision of the musical text of Mozart's piano sonatas. The RN Verlag intends to serve practical purposes for piano performers, the editor avoiding the temptation to overload the score with textual material, making strict mention of disagreements or discrepancies with each other throughout the sonatas, although some decisions have been made tacitly about the musical text, not altering the composer's meaning. With few exceptions, it has been avoided to differentiate between the staccato signs or strokes (wedges), as it is a difficult task to differentiate Mozart's handwriting by his way of writing. The editor has resorted to marking in grey the strictly necessary musical notations of the sources consulted. We would like to thank all the institutions that provided the material for this research. Read more