Violin Sonata in D major K.306

Passing through Munich on his way to Mannheim and Paris in October 1777 Mozart came across a set of six duets for violin and harpsichord by Joseph Schuster. He was so impressed by them that he not only sent a copy back home to his father and sister in Salzburg – ”so that,” he told them, “you can amuse yourselves à deux” –    but also decided to write some of his own “in the same style.” What he liked about them is that, as his “à deux” implies, they were true duets, written for violin and harpsichord on equal terms, rather than harpsichord pieces supplied with optional violin accompaniment in the manner of the day. He himself had written sonatas of the latter kind but those he was to write in Mannheim and Paris during the next few months would be different.

It is clear from the present work in D major, the most substantial of the six violin sonatas published in Paris in 1778, that Mozart did not regard his new-style violin parts as optional extras. It is true that the violin adds little to the opening bars, where the pianist introduces the proudly march-like main theme, but it does have the second subject, a poignant little melody in B minor, exclusively to itself. The middle section of the movement is a genuinely two-sided conversation and, when it comes to the recapitulation, the violin takes the liberty of re-introducing its melody first, which means that the piano has no opportunity to recall its proud main theme until the closing bars.

The Sonata in D major is unlike the others in the set in that, whereas all the others have only two movements, this one has three, with a melodious Andante cantabile at its centre. While a competent pianist could play both parts at once, the expressive voice of the violin is an essential requisite here, particularly in the romantic development section and the heightened intensity of the recapitulation.

In that is a clear rondo construction, the last movement completes the pattern to be followed by many of Mozart’s later violin sonatas. None, however, is as elaborately constructed as this. There are two main tempi – a 2/4 Allegretto and a 6/8 Allegro, each with its own distinctive material. Both sections are repeated as though to round off the movement but progress is halted by the intervention of a surprisingly long cadenza. It features only the pianist at first but eventually draws the violin in too, so that it ends on a series of combined trills and a coy Andantino before the two main Allegretto and Allegro elements are briefly and finally recalled.

Mozart discovered the potential of the violin sonata when he was passing through Munich on his way to Mannheim and Paris in 1777 and came across a set of duo sonatas by Schuster. He was so impressed by them that he sent a copy home to    his father and sister. “My main object in sending them to you,” he told them, “is that you may amuse yourselves à deux..” He also told them that he would write six himself “in the same style” - which must mean, for the first time in his violin sonatas, with the two instruments as equal partners.

Apart from the C major Sonata K296, which was not published until 1781, the D major K306 is the only one of the sonatas written in Mannheim and Paris to achieve full three-movement status. It also foreshadows later development, like the first movement of K.376, by abandoning the principle of alternation. So, although the violin might almost be silent during the piano’s first statement of the main theme for all the effect it has on the course of events, it is given exclusive use of a poignant melody in B minor. Contrary to appearances, the allocation to the piano of a little staccato theme in A major does not upset the balance. For, after a middle section which is more a study in combined violin and piano sonorities than a development, the violin usurps the piano’s right to recapitulate its melody first. The appearance of the violin theme in E minor causes the piano to recall its little staccato theme in D major, leaving its proud first theme to function only as a coda.

The Andante cantabile is remarkable enough as the the only true slow movement in the set. Very simple at first, it gathers intensity as it proceeds through a ramatic development to a recapiulation where the violin finds a new level of expression – and not only because Mozart transposes the violin up a fourth (rather then down a fifth) when the second subject reappears in its new key.

In that is a clear rondo construction, the last movement completes the pattern followed by many of the later sonatas. None, however, is as elaborately constructed as this. There are two main tempi – first a 2/4 Allegretto beginning and ending in D major, then a 6/8 Allegro beginning in D and modulating to the dominant. The Allegro return in the tonic and the Allegro this time ends in D, not to make way for the Allegretto immediately but to introduce a long cadenza. It features only the pianist’s virtuosity at first, but the violin is eventually drawn in too, so that the cadenza ends on a series of combined trills and a coy Andantino before the two main Allegretto and Allegro elements are briefly recalled.