Violin Sonata in F major, K.377 (1781)

Allegro

Tema con variazioni

Tempo di menuetto

The history of the classical violin-and-piano sonata began in Mannheim in 1778 when Mozart wrote the first of the six Sonatas (K301-306) that were published in Paris later in the same year as “Opus 1.” They were apparently modelled on a set of six pieces by Joseph Schuster which had impressed him by being scored “à deux,” as he described it, rather than in the conventional manner of the sonatas of the day for harpsichord or piano “with violin accompaniment.” Certainly, the shared responsibility of violin and piano is a key features of the “Opus 1” Violin Sonatas and one that he was to develop in the next set, which would be published in Vienna in 1781 as “Opus 2.” They were greeted at the time as “the only ones of their kind: the accompaniment of the violin is so artfully combined with the clavier part that both instruments are kept constantly on the alert, so that these sonatas require just as skilful a player on the violin as on the clavier.”

The second of the two F major Sonatas of the Opus 2 set is in several ways the most remarkable of them all. The absence of dynamic marking in the Allegro means that a different interpretation is quite possible but the tempo heading, the alla breve time signature and the scoring of the opening bars all suggest that Mozart had a brisk and dramatic first movement in mind. The repeated triplets in the violin part stress the urgency and there is no relaxation before the end of the movement. The triplet rhythms never rest. The second subject, though more delicate in figuration, is little different in shape and momentum from the first, which latter holds on to the development with a tenacity that allows no hiatus in bringing in the recapitulation.

Although there are several sets of variations in Mozart’s Violin Sonatas, that of the second movement of K.377 is unique in being in a minor key. The interweaving of violin and piano lines in the second part of the D minor tema is a particularly inspired invention in scoring which is reflected in similar imaginative textural ideas at the equivalent point in each variation - including the otherwise severely scored fourth. The sixth and last, an extended Siciliana, so fascinated Mozart that he wrote variations on the variation in his D minor String Quartet K.421.

The Tempo di Minuetto is neither a standard minuet nor the rondo in minuet tempo it might also have been. It is perhaps best described as a minuet with two trios but with the second (in B flat) following directly on the first in (F major) without the expected recall of the minuet coming between them. The one more-than-momentary use of double-stopped violin harmonies in the whole work is reserved for a last farewell to the main theme in parallel sixths and thirds under a sustained trill on the piano in the closing bars.