Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor

Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 14 was composed in late 1784 and published the following year alongside the Fantasia in the same key of C minor. The previously lost manuscript resurfaced in 1990, revealing that the Sonata and the Fantasia shared the same autograph score. Whether they truly belong together remains a matter for debate. Some—the pianist Alfred Brendel among them—believe these are autonomous masterpieces that simply cancel each other out if performed together. The Sonata exerted a powerful influence on Beethoven, not only in the brooding solemnity of its C minor tonality, but in its extreme contrasts and expressive gestures. The middle of the slow movement features a melodic line identical to the opening of the famous slow movement of Beethoven’s "Pathétique" Sonata. The first movement juxtaposes vehement outbursts with more inward, personal responses, while the finale is characterised by its sighing figures, persistent syncopations, dissonant suspensions and rhetorical pauses.