Is anyone teaching/playing this one?
I've been having a go at it - not with any serious attempt at the exam this session but I like Mozart and want to keep challenging myself with grade 8 standard pieces.
I don't really understand the ending if that makes sense...the last six bars. It doesn't seem to 'fit' with the rest of the piece and (possibly because it's still quite slow) sounds frankly odd. Will it get better once I get up to speed and more accustomed to the sound, or is this just another one of those pieces that I think just sounds wrong??!

I'm playing that (If that's what you can call it!).
It does sound a bit out of place in some ways I suppose, but a coda can be like that as it comes at the point where you expect the pice to end. It will get better as you grow into it.

Hi SuzyMac

As it hapens, this sonata is the one I use as the central work on my demo cd. The point of the ending to the movement is to bring it to a gentle close that does not suggest a final ending to the 3 movement work.

A classical\romantic sonata is a 3\4 movement piece. A soloist playing it in a recital should feel a sense of progression from one phrase to another, from one section to another, from one movement to another all through the work. This particular ending leaves listeners with the sublime sense that there is more to come; this is why it doesn't seem to fit with the movement when this is all you are playing. Mozart was considering the whole work.

From the point of view of a grade 8 candidate, the movement is a separate entity. You will look for a definite close that the movement lacks. Bear in mind the context and the lack of that close will make more sense. The second movement is technically easy, so playing that will help you make more sense of the first. The third is technically difficult but still eminently readable; try it and you will start to gain a sense of the work as a whole.

I hope this helps. I know this work better than most, so feel free to come back with further questions if you feel I can help.

Steve

is it in the selected B pieces? If it is, I played that one but I messed up the ornaments in the exam...... bad me!

Thanks Steve, that was useful.

Yes, thank you Steve.
I've only got the selected pieces book at the moment, but have already ordered the full sonata as the page turns are a bit tricky. Hopefully playing the full thing will help.
I probably will come back with more questions as I get used to it and play a bit faster!

Would you like an audio file of me playing the first movement? It is big, at 69kb, so you need broadband.

Dear Steve,

That's a rather bold statement that you made about knowing the Mozart 'better than most'. How do you know this? Perhaps you can tell me then how well I know it.

That would be great - I have broadband so size is no problem