Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

This is a dark work, composed in Vienna in the spring of 1787, shortly after Mozart returned from a trip to Prague. There is little doubt that the composer was expressing feelings of grief here, but the source of them remains a matter of speculation. Despite the sense of sadness in the opening theme and related material, the music exudes an elegance throughout, as if restraint is applied to curtail any effort to wallow in sorrow or pity.

The main theme is beautiful in its delicate lyricism, auguring the intimate side of Chopin's artistic muse, not only in its music but in the form it generates throughout the piece: a five-note turn at the beginning of the theme serves to launch the ensuing livelier episode that follows. Here the mood brightens a bit, but, overall, the dark atmosphere cast by the opening melody is never dispelled. There are other such thematic relationships among the various sections, with the main theme's parts providing the springboard for the material in the alternating sections. In the coda the music takes on an anxious manner at the outset, but turns gentle and soothing on the partial, upper-register reappearance of the main theme. Lasting about ten minutes, this masterfully conceived work is among Mozart's finest piano pieces.