Sonata in A major KV 331 (300i)

Published in 1784, Mozart’s Sonata in A major “for clavier solo”, with its famous “Alla Turca” finale, is one of the most popular works in the entire piano literature. After a section of the lost autograph was rediscovered a few years ago, another important source has surfaced with the appearance of a previously unknown contemporary copy of the complete autograph, which has prompted Bärenreiter to issue an up-to-date Urtext edition of this celebrated piece.

The copy by a professional Viennese copyist throws new light on the problem of the numerous discrepancies between autographs and first editions of many Mozart sonatas. It supports the assumption that the revision of the text for the first edition resulted from the change of target group from Mozart's inner circle to an audience of connoisseurs and amateurs, but that this did not render the original (autograph) text obsolete; rather, both versions of the sonata represent historical realities.

To achieve a truly faithful scholarly-critical performance edition of Mozart's sonata, the editor, Mario Aschauer, has set new editorial standards and offers the most innovative methodological approach of our time by presenting the musical text of the autograph and the original print separately without merging the sources editorially to a new text. On the basis of the newly discovered source, it is possible for the first time to reconstruct the autograph transmission of this famous sonata and offer it to the performer as a self-contained playable version.

The preface allows surprising new insights into the form and source situation of the sonata (Ger / Eng). The edition is supplemented by a chapter on performance practice providing in-depth information on piano playing in Mozart’s time (Ger / Eng). Variants and editorial decisions are documented in the Critical Commentary.