ALC 0161 Mozart: Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin Vol. 2

The sonatas K.378, K.379, and K.380, composed between 1779 and 1781 and published in Vienna by Artaria in 1781, conclude the series known as the “Aurnhammer Sonatas,” Op. 2. These works mark a clear and definitive break from earlier chamber music traditions and reflect Mozart’s extraordinary ability to absorb, reshape, and transcend the conventions of his time. Contemporary sources, such as the 1783 review in the Magazin der Musik, recognized in these sonatas a striking originality, wealth of ideas, and an unprecedented instrumental balance.
Up until then, the violin had generally been confined, except in rare cases, to a subordinate, accompanying role. With Op. 2, however, the Salzburg-born composer establishes true parity between the instruments, creating a novel equilibrium in which piano and violin engage in a lively exchange of imitations, responses, and contrasts. This dialogue between instruments, coupled with the richness of ideas and expressive variety of affetti, reflects the 18th-century conception of music as an art of persuasion and rhetorical dialogue.
In sonatas K.378–380, the continuous interplay between the instruments takes on the character of an oratorical debate: a disputatio. Violin and piano alternate in presenting themes, imitating and responding to each other, sometimes overlapping like two rhetoricians developing and countering arguments. In the Andante con moto of Sonata K.380, for example, Mozart achieves a perfect balance between the musical "speakers" on stage, and through rhetorical figures such as Antithesis and Dubitatio, creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and disquiet typical of G minor.