Mozart - Piano Duets [CD]

Mozart completed the C Major Sonata, K.521 (allegro, andante and allegretto) [23:37] in Vienna on 29th May 1787 the very day after Leopold, his father, died in Salzburg. He sent a copy to his pupil Franziska von Jacquin with a warning to her brother Gottfried that the music was difficult. Primo and secondo share the opening themes written and developed in the period style of the great piano concertos. The andante is in F major with a forceful central section in D minor. The final movement in rondo form reveals moods of restrained cheerfulness and passion before concluding with an extended.

The Andante with Five Variations in G major, K.501 [7:45] was composed in the November of 1786. The first and third variations on the graceful opening theme employ rapid ornamentation. Triplets give the second variation a feeling of gaiety that contrasts with the mood of the fourth variation in G minor. The fifth variation with its energetic and chromatic brilliance leads to the coda recapturing the calm and grace of the opening theme.

The Sonata in D major, K.381 (allegro, andante, allegro molto) [15:29] was composed in Salzburg when Mozart was sixteen and after he and his father had returned from their second visit to Italy. This is the work of a mature composer with its exploration of new keys and recapitulations of two contrasting themes.

Mozart wrote music for mechanical clocks and organs. One such work, dated 3rd March 1791, was the Fantasia in F minor for mechanical organ, K.608 [9:31] which subsequently became more widely known as a piano duet. Its grand opening leads to a four-part fugue. The A major andante returns to the stately opening music which leads to an elaborate concluding double fugue.

The C Major Sonata, K.19d (allegro, menuetto, rondo:allegretto) [12:30] was originally written for two-manual harpsichord. Mozart at age nine performed this piece on a harpsichord in public in London, England, with his thirteen-year old sister. The two young performers were billed as Prodigies of Nature.