Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major

Familiar to amateur pianists the world over, Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 16 was described by its composer as “a little sonata for beginners”. As one might guess, it was intended for teaching purposes—at the time Mozart’s most reliable source of income—and was composed in the summer of 1788, the period of the last three symphonies. Surprisingly, given his financial difficulties, it wasn’t published until after his death, appearing in 1805 with the title “Sonate facile”. The exquisitely proportioned first movement focuses on familiar building blocks of classical style, patterns of scales and arpeggios underpinned by left-hand broken chords known as Alberti bass (after Domenico Alberti, one of the first composers to use this texture extensively). A short development section leads to the recapitulation in the “wrong” key of F major, rather than the expected tonic of C major. The slow movement is a gentle serenade in G major with a central episode that wistfully turns to the minor, the music again propelled by its Alberti bass, while the finale is a concise and perky rondo.