Don Satz wrote:

>On a different message board, one I read but never post on, there's been
>some discussion of the relative merits of Mozart's piano sonatas.  Many
>posters on that board felt that the piano sonatas were not at Mozart's
>highest level; a few even indicated that Mozart's early sonatas were of
>no merit at all.
>
>I'm curious as to how list members view these sonatas, and whether a large
>difference in quality is noted between the early and the more mature
>sonatas.

I recently acquired Walter Klien's Vox Box of the first ten sonatas after
a number of listers recommended them.  I previously knew only #3 and #8
(a prince among piano sonatas) and am still getting to know the others.
I find a greater emotional intensity in Mozart's later sonatas but it's
almost sacrilege to say that *any* Mozart is of no merit at all.  I
remember an LP called WAM Is a Dirty Old Man which contained faintly
scatalogical canons and the like, and slight thought they were, they had
musical merit.  I hate to say it but I've heard Eine Kleine so often that
I now choose not to, but I still recognise its enormous merits.  Perhaps
the naysayers Don quotes are related to the ARG reviewer he told us about
who trashed Hummel.  Some people have no taste.

Richard Pennycuick
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