Sonata in D for two pianos

One of the recurring facets about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) is the incongruity that appears between the man and his music. We marvel at how he could create radiant works like the “Jupiter” Symphony or Exultate, jubilate when his personal life was so fraught with despair and economic hardship. Earlier in his career, the disconnect—so wonderfully portrayed in the film Amadeus—hinges on how so uncouth a young man could pen music of overwhelming sublimity. Consider the radiant Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448. This sonata was written soon after Mozart settled permanently in Vienna in 1781, having resigned his position in Salzburg. He was now a free artist ready, and such spirited music as this D-major Sonata would offer Mozart a useful vehicle for public self-promotion. He would premiere it with one of his pupils, an excellent player named Josephine Auernhammer, who also premiered the Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365. Judging by Mozart’s own admissions, Josephine was not exactly a demure young lady. He was quite open in his revulsion toward her personal attributes. She is obese, he wrote to his father, perspires to the point of distraction, and “goes about so scantily clad that, really, you can read as plain as print: ‘Pray, do look here’.”
Despite all that, when it came time to compose a sonata for Josephine and himself to present publicly, Mozart clearly bracketed all such reactions (though perhaps his decision to score this work for two separate pianos, rather than two players at one keyboard, sitting so intimately side-by-side, may bear trace of his aversion for Josephine’s person). The three movements overflow with charm. Mozart makes full use of the available sonorities. Textures are thick and sonorous, and the witty interplay between call-and-response creates an engaging sense of conversation. The Allegro con Spirito opens with topical interaction between fanfare and singing style, whereas the second theme includes humorous jabs from piano 1 as it listens along to the theme in piano 2. The Andante favors lyricism throughout and is eventually upstaged by one of Mozart’s finest Rondo finales. From the infectious main theme to the striking minor-mode episodes and shimmering textures, every bar shows Mozart’s brilliant grasp of the galant style.
Despite whatever issues Mozart had with Josephine as a person, there can be no doubt that she was an excellent pianist. This is no teacher-student duet but rather a fully egalitarian Sonata for two masters requiring careful coordination, timing, and the ability to render quasi-symphonic grandeur in a chamber music setting. His energies were occupied simultaneously on The Abduction from the Seraglio, and the Sonata shows little emotional engagement. But that absence is barely noticed in a work of consummate craftsmanship.

(c) Jason Stell