Mozart | Piano Sonata in A minor, K. 310

In August 1777, after long and detailed planning with his father Leopold, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart resigned from his position as a court musician and a month later left on a tour through Europe in search of employment. Since his father could not leave his own position at the Archbishop’s court, Mozart’s mother had to accompany her son on the trip to Munich, Mannheim, and Paris. This trip proved to be disaster both professionally and personally, as Mozart’s attempts at securing a position did not yield any results, while his father’s increasingly frantic letters put more and more pressure on the young composer. In Paris Mozart never even entertained serious hopes for some kind of success, as he detested the city, its people and its music. There, he did not make any important contacts, rarely performed, composed very little, fell into debt, and took to pawning valuables. And when it seemed things could not get any worse, in the summer of 1778 his mother fell ill, became bed-ridden for three weeks, went into a coma and died in July. The A minor Sonata was written during that Paris summer, and one can be almost certain the tragic events surrounding this period account for the dark, tumultuous and unrelenting character of this work.

This edition is part of ABRSM’s ‘Signature’ Series of authoritative performing editions of standard keyboard works, prepared from original sources by leading scholars. It includes an informative introduction and performance notes.