I'm teaching Mozart's Andante movement from K330 for TG Grade 6 and I'm not sure how I should interpret the row of appoggiaturas in bar 25. I have listened to about four different recordings on the Naxos Music Library and only one pianist plays them as exactly even appoggiaturas with the little note taking exactly half the value of the following quaver. The effect is a row of six semiquavers all the same length and smoothly articulated. Other performances treat them more like acciaccaturas with a short C with more weight on the Db. Walter Klein was the pianist who played them smoothly. I liked his performance best as a whole because it made me want to sing the melody. Isn't that how Mozart should be - intensely lyrical?

Any thoughts from anyone who has studied this movement, either has a listener or player?

Many thanks

P.S I'm using the Verlag Urtext and not the TG Grade book at the moment.

I have a very old Augener's edition in which they are clearly shown as equal length quavers, and this is how I prefer to play and to listen to them. In my edition the notes are actually in bar 28!! A good clue is in the notes at the foot of each page where, although this particular bar is not written out, there are examples in the other sonatas with a similar situation, eg. K310 andante, bar 10.

Technically they are acciaccaturas (crossed stem), I think I have heard them played both ways. Nothing is ever set in stone I suppose.

I play them similarly to the first movement, that is squash them in.

Thank you both That is a good idea to listen to the whole sonata and others. I think it will help to find some more performances on-line and editions to compare. I guess the answer is to be as consistent as possible.

In my edition they are definately not shown as accaciaturas - no crossed stems. In fact, in the whole movement there are only 4 accaciaturas - bars 6,7,51 & 52. Interesting!

I have played them as equal quavers for 40 years, and never thought they should be otherwise.
Its a favourite sonata of mine (and Barenboim's!) , and not too difficult to play all of it.

Horowitz played them equal length. That is good enough for me.

You can find his performance of the entire sonata on YouTube.

Lang Lang also plays this sonata very well. (He sits still and cuts out most of the mannerisms). His version is also on YouTube - but only the last movement.

Lovely - I am now heavily into appoggiaturas and considering doing a Phd and writing 50,000 words on them!

I'm being serious because I have just been looking up info in 'The Interpretation of Early Music' by Robert Donnington and there are so many schools of thought on how they should be played - Baroque, post-Baroque and so on. Most interesting was the comment made about how a orchestra would have to match a piano part in a Mozart Piano Concerto and how studying Mozart operas would provide clues from how they are sung.

Quote- ' In Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 459, second movement, the appoggiaturas in the orchestral parts.......should be long (ie half the length of the quavers on which they stand) as is proved by their having to match the piano part...' (Donnington, 150, 1963).

On page 162 there is a quote about passing appoggiaturas and an accent taken on the quaver which I think may contradict the above. I need time to read it properly. It's a massive subject!!!