Bad Schmiedeberg Master Concerts - Genius Mozart

Concert introduction:

Frank-Immo Zichner performs four Mozart sonatas.

Mozart's Piano Sonatas KV 310, 330, 332 and 333
When we listen to four piano sonatas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart today, we encounter not merely "beautiful classical works", but a surprisingly broad emotional spectrum. Between the dark A-minor sonata KV 310 and the cheerful, operatically radiant sonatas KV 330, 332 and 333 unfolds a panorama of Mozart's Viennese piano style: elegant, lyrical, virtuosic - and at the same time profoundly human.

Mozart's piano sonatas were not originally written for large concert halls, but for private salons and domestic music-making. It is precisely for this reason that they have such an immediate effect: they speak not monumentally, but personally. Nevertheless, they already contain that dramatic power which Beethoven would later develop.

Sonata in A minor KV 310 - Passion and Upheaval
The sonata KV 310 holds a special place among Mozart's piano sonatas. It was written in 1778 during Mozart's stay in Paris - a time of great personal crisis. During this journey, his mother Anna Maria Mozart died; at the same time, many of his professional hopes were dashed. Many listeners regard this sonata as one of Mozart's most personal and dramatic works. The very first movement begins unusually sharply and restlessly: not courtly elegance, but nervous energy, harsh accents and an almost tragic tone. A minor is often the key of existential agitation for Mozart - think later of the great C-minor piano sonata KV 457 or scenes in "Don Giovanni".

The slow movement initially seems consoling, but again and again painful dissonances break through. In the finale, Mozart drives the music into a breathless presto. Virtuosity here serves not brilliance, but inner tension.

KV 310 reveals a Mozart who goes far beyond the image of the "charming classicist": vulnerable, dramatic and profoundly human.