Mozart Violin Sonata in D major K306: Transcribed for Cello

All of the preceding Mozart violin sonatas have been two-movement affairs. With this K306 sonata, however, we seem to be entering into a somewhat different world. Not only is this sonata made up of three movements, these movements are all quite “grand” in every sense: length, energy, expressiveness and virtuosity.

Because this cello transcription is in the original key, we can use any standard piano accompaniment part, available, for example, from imslp.org.

For the “Concert Versions”, the only note changes made in the entire sonata are the revoicing of the final chords of the first and third movements to give the resonance of the open D string. The Easier Versions, however, have many octave changes to bring the higher passages down into the Neck Region.

FIRST MOVEMENT: Allegro con Spirito

This movement really lives up to its high-spirited name: the cellist (violinist) has only one bar of rest in the entire movement and the dramatic development section is – for Mozart – extraordinarily athletic. Leaping maniacally all over the fingerboard, the music goes flying off the staves no matter how frenetically we change clefs to try and keep up with it! The lack of rests poses a problem for page turns: do we squash the music onto two pages, or do we spread three pages out on our music stand and hope they don’t fall off?

The “Easier Version” is the same as the “Concert Version” except that the high register passages have been transposed down an octave to keep it almost always in the Neck Region. Some chords have been revoiced for the same reason.

Edited Concert Version   Clean Concert Version    Easier Version      Literal Transcription

Here is a play-along audio of the piano accompaniment part. This, and the accompaniment for the other two movements, are from the website piano-accompaniments.com which has a very large catalogue of accompaniments for many instruments and the voice. These accompaniment files are for sale which is why it is not available here for free downloading. They are very reasonably priced and I hope you will purchase the files from them in order to be able to use them at any time (and at any speed). A two-bar introduction has been added so that we can know when to start.

SECOND MOVEMENT

This movement is an outpouring of Mozartian lyrical melody such as we cellists often get to accompany but seldom get to play.

Edited Concert Version    Clean Concert Version    Easier Version      Literal Transcription

Here is a play-along audio of the piano accompaniment part.

THIRD MOVEMENT

This sparkling Rondo-type movement is of a depth and variety that we haven’t seen in Mozart’s previous violin sonatas. Bars 253-256 are transposed down an additional octave even in the “Concert Version”.

Edited Concert Version   Clean Concert Version    Easier Version   Literal Transcription

Here is a play-along audio of the piano accompaniment part. A two-bar introduction has been added so that we can know when to start.