Talk:Piano Sonata No. 18 (Mozart)

Difficulty?

In all honesty, the only parts of K. 576 that are technically difficult are the passages of two-part invertible counterpoint in the first movement. The perceived difficulty of the third movement is mostly because most performers tend to play it too fast: it should most probably be closer to the Classical tempo ordinario for Allegretto, = c.76. So it could very well be one of the six "easy" piano sonatas, as Charles Rosen argues this way in Beethoven's Piano Sonatas. Double sharp (talk) 11:51, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

He also writes (The Classical Style, p.467) that Mozart (like J.S.Bach for his Two-Part Inventions) must have thought that bare two-part counterpoint was easy to play! (Though perhaps a faster Allegretto is needed if the audience is not to fall asleep today, and to give a difficulty commensurate with that of the first movement.) Well, it is indeed one of the two Mozart sonatas that have made me sweat the most technically (the other being K. 533), and both are heavy on counterpoint. (Still, thank you Mozart for making my barely-a-9th-sized-hands actually advantageous!) Double sharp (talk) 13:04, 15 May 2016 (UTC)