Mozart: Piano Sonata No.14 in C minor, K. 457

The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457 was composed by Mozart in 1784. The title page bore a dedication to Therese von Trattner (1758 - 1793), who was one of Mozart’s pupils in Vienna. Her husband, Thomas von Trattner (1717 - 1798), was an important publisher, as well as Mozart’s landlord in 1784. Eventually, the Trattners would become godparents to four of Mozart’s children.
The piano sonata was composed during the approximately 10-year period of Mozart’s life as a freelance artist in Vienna after he removed himself from the patronage of the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1781. It is one of the earliest of only six sonatas composed during the Vienna years. Sonatas during this time were generally written for the domestic sphere - as opposed to a symphony or concerto, they were designed to convey ideas in a small, intimate setting.
The work has three movements:
I. Allegro
The subject is stated boldly in octaves, occurring twice in the first 8 bars. The second subject has some very graceful melodies supported by Alberti bass, which continue until the second half of the piece. This section uses material from the first and second subjects to form the development. The most unstable section harmonically, this goes through the keys of C major, F minor, G minor, before returning to the original part in C minor.
II. Adagio
The principal subject of this movement is seven bars long, consisting mainly of bass broken-chord accompaniment and a melody. The subject, however, sub-divides itself into regular one-bar sections, which is very unusual.
The second section, or episode, begins in A flat major. This melody starts off exactly the same as the second movement in Beethoven’s ‘Pathétique’ sonata.
The ‘Sonata Pathétique’ is the subject of our other recent video:
• Beethoven: The 'Sonata...
Mozart’s sonata feels in several ways prophetic of Beethoven’s C minor ‘Sonata Pathétique’ (which it predates by roughly fifteen years), and both works share a similar overall structure.
III. Allegro assai
This movement is distinguished by its profound sense of tragedy, setting it apart from the typically upbeat and up-tempo final movements in many of Mozart’s sonatas.
The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor is only one of two sonatas Mozart wrote in a minor key, the other being the Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor, K. 310, which was written six years earlier, around the time of the death of Mozart’s mother. Mozart was extremely deliberate in choosing tonalities for his compositions; therefore, his choice of C minor for this sonata implies that this piece was perhaps a very personal work.
Philippe Sollers wrote in his book ‘Mystérieux Mozart’:
“There are accomplices, friends … Theresa von Trattner, a piano student with whom he lives. [Mozart was living in an apartment in the building owned by Theresa’s father; he was not actually living with her.] She is married, but it is to her that Wolfgang gives the most significant gift: the great Sonata in C minor K. 457 and the Fantasy in the same key, K. 475. A passion, that one, you just have to listen to what the music says seriously. It is one of Mozart’s great masterpieces, a true piano novel, carried away, tragic. Both works are dedicated to Theresa. Mozart gave them to her with accompanying letters on how to perform them; Theresa, later, would refuse to share the letters with (Mozart’s wife) Constance. Wolfgang and Theresa were at the keyboard side by side a lot. The music here is exalted, quivering, dark, very broad, it speaks of many things that happened between the keys …”
Mozart’s sonata remains a generous tribute to his talented twenty-six-year-old pupil, the wife of a Viennese book publisher and entrepreneur who was 40 years her senior.
Born in 1758, Therese von Trattner died in 1793, aged 35 years. Two years younger than Mozart, she survived him by two years, only to reach the age which he himself had reached on earth.
Köchel said of this sonata, “Without question this is the most important of all Mozart’s pianoforte sonatas. Surpassing all the others by reason of the fire and passion which, to its last note, breathe through it, it foreshadows the pianoforte sonata, as it was destined to become in the hands of Beethoven”.
This performance is by Paavali Jumppanen.
The painting of Mozart is by Joseph Lange (1751 - 1831) and is regarded by historians as the most accurate surviving likeness of Mozart. It was painted when the composer was 26 years old, i.e., at around the same time as Mozart composed the sonata.
Lange was an actor and amateur painter. Through his marriage to Aloysia Weber, he was the brother-in-law of Mozart.
Unfortunately, there are no known portraits existing of Therese von Trattner. The painting ‘Woman playing piano’ is by the American artist Abbott Fuller Graves 1859 - 1936).