Does anyone know what grade this piece would be? It says "facile" but looks a little daunting on paper.

Easy is a relative term...

I'm not sure what grade a piece is really matters - either one can play it or one can't, and Mozart definitely wasn't writing with an exam syllabus in mind! - but the third movement was set for Grade V a few years ago.

THank you. The first two bars seemed manageable...

The first movement is about Grade 5 my teacher said . It's fairly easy, and those long running scales are easier than you think as long as you use the right fingering (I'd reccomend the ABRSM edition).
The second movement is considered to be around Grade 6. The real challenge lies in memorization (Pretty long if the repeats are observed). And keeping the LH 'Alberti Bass' even throughout the piece. The third movement is the hardest, around Grade 5 - a little harder than the first movement but similar in technique and expressions.

Hope this helps!

Id have said, 5-6, 5 , and 6-7 for the three movements.
But there are some eminent players who murder this Sonata, it probably has more variants of interpretation than any other sonata.

THank you for all the replies. It is probably quite beyond me but it is really lovely. I have an old Edition Peters that has some fingering so I might try to work slowly through it.

Even though the last grade you took was 2, there is nothing wrong with giving something a go. There are some tricky scale passages in this and the slow movement is beautiful.

You will learn a lot about music through playing it.

Courtesy of being part of the You Tube generation, it is possible to compare a lot of recordings for nothing. Do look for established names though. Well known professional pianists rather than every Tom, #### and Henrietta who has submitted their version.

Enjoy listening and enjoy learning. (edit stupid obscentity filter doesn't like the four letter diminutive for Richard beginning with D)

I learnt this when I was around Grade 5.

After reading this thread I went and played through it yesterday and realised that while the notes are "easy"-ish to learn, it's so hard to get it musical the way I want to! There is nowhere to hide.

But now that I've been a music student and played some of Mozart's horn and orchestral stuff, I "hear" this sonata so differently. I would phrase many of the phrases like I did the horn parts now.

This is the earliest piece of music I can remember my sister playing... so bits of it at least are accessible to a G4-5.

Accessible this one might be, easy it certainly isn't. This Sonate is so often underestimated and is one of the least performed and hardest to pull off well, you may be able to do a first learning of it at around grade 5 ish, but it won't be perfected until way beyond grade 8.

I think the big difficulty of the adult learner (at 39 I think I qualify) is that we listen to so much music played so perfectly and we want to play it. I am still on Carol Barret Books 1-3 (the small edition that is hard to read), or the first bit of Fur Elise. But I go to sleep hearing Mozart in my head. java script:emoticon('-_-',%20'smid_2') One day, one day, and a lot of practice later.....My aim is Grade 8 by 50 with a lot of lovely music on the way (not just 21 pieces to get there, see other thread)