Mozart Piano Sonata in A Minor K310: For Cello

When we look through a catalogue of Mozart‘s famous Piano Sonatas this is one of only two that are in a minor key (the other one is K457 in C Minor). It is also the only Mozart Piano Sonata for which the cellofun transcription is in the original key, which means that some complex passages lie quite high, making its level of technical difficulty sometimes more like a concerto than a sonata. Transposed down a third, fourth or fifth, the sonata becomes much easier (this is an easy process with the XML engraving files).

FIRST MOVEMENT

Here is an audio of this movement played on the piano by Walter Klien. So that we can play along with it, its speed has been reduced to 95% of the original recording speed:

What an extraordinary movement this is ! The suffering, torment, rage, anguish and grief that are expressed from the very first bars have more in common with music of the Romantic Period than with the lightness, restraint, charm and delight so associated with Mozart’s Classical Period. Look at the dissonance of the second and fourth bars for example: in what would normally be a dominant 7th chord on E (with E, G#, B and D), Mozart has added an A, creating a dissonance like a knife thrust to the heart. These chords have more in common with 20th-century note clusters than with any concept of traditional harmony:

The reason for this astonishing outpouring of grief becomes immediately clear when we discover that this sonata was written in the days immediately following the sudden, unexpected death of Mozart’s mother in 1778.

Whereas the “rule of the Classical Period grace note” states that “a grace note should be half the length of the note that it precedes”, the pain and torment of the opening of this movement seems to require a wild, agonised fast grace note, rather than something graceful, elegant and decorative. This is why we have written out the first notes (grace notes in Mozart’s original notation) of bars 1, 2 and 4 (and every repetition of this figure) as 16th notes rather than the academically correct 8th notes.

1. Edited Version
2.      Clean Version
3.      Easier Version
4.      Accompaniment Score

1. Score For Cello Duo Arrangement
2.       Accompaniment Part For Second Cello

1. Engraving Files

SECOND MOVEMENT: Andante Cantabile Con Espressione

Here is an audio of this movement played on the piano by Walter Klien.

Like the first movement, this is deeply expressive, intensely emotional music. It is a curious experiment to play it first without having any of Mozart’s dynamics in the part. These are not at all what we might imagine and our attempts to guess them might often be the opposite of what Mozart wrote. The surprising dynamics do however make perfect sense when we remember that Mozart’s mother had just died unexpectedly. The many extreme and sudden alternations between forte and piano would seem to reflect a state of grief, with its wild fluctuations between sorrow and rage.

The extreme dissonances of bars 44-50, just like those of bars 2 and 4 in the first movement, also show this same state of agonised grief.

1. Edited Version
2.       Clean Version
3.      Accompaniment Score (piano)

1. Cello Duo Study Score
2.       Accompaniment Part For Second Cello

1. Engraving Files (XML)

And here is a play-along piano accompaniment to our cello version of this movement, with a two-beat introduction:

THIRD MOVEMENT: Presto

Here is an audio recording of the original sonata movement played by Walter Klien. Yes, it’s very fast but we don’t need to play it at that speed!

1. Edited Performance Version
2.     Clean Performance Version
3.     Piano Accompaniment Score

1. Cello Duo Version: Score
2.     Second Cello Accompaniment Part

1. Engraving Files

And here is a play-along piano accompaniment to our cello version, with a four-bar introduction: