Description
Piano Sonata No. 14, K. 457, was written in Vienna in 1784 and dedicated to Mozart's pupil Therese von Trattner. In 1785 he published this sonata on its own, paired with the Fantasia in C minor, K. 475, completed the year before — a pairing still honoured today.
The second movement is an Adagio in E-flat major and common time, laid out like a rondo in which the theme returns twice, more finely decorated each time. The autograph rediscovered in Philadelphia in 1990 carries ornamentation far more elaborate than the printed edition, letting us see directly how Mozart himself redecorated the same melody.
It is an intermediate movement, and after the drama of the first what it asks for is a sense of time rather than technique. At an Adagio tempo, ornaments played merely as written notes make the melody stall. The decoration has to ride on the breath of the line, and the rests and pauses have to be held as music in their own right.
Piano sonatas representative of the Classical and Romantic eras, including Beethoven's early works — substantial multi-movement pieces throughout.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, and achieved fame as a child prodigy before establishing his career in Vienna. In a life of only 35 years, he produced masterpieces across symphonies, operas, chamber music, and keyboard works. His style combines clarity and formal balance with rich emotional depth. This site includes movements of the Sonatas K. 545 and K. 331, the Fantasia in D minor, K. 397, and several fugues.
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