Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. (1756–1791)
Grande Sonate a quatre mains sur un Clavecin ou Pianoforte. [K. 497]
Vienne: Artaria. [1787]. First edition, first issue. Oblong 4to, 225 x 301 mm. 39 pages. Engraved throughout. [PN] 108. With handwritten opus number on title. Modern 1/4 morocco with morocco lettering piece. Occasional light soiling, margins trimmed slightly entering music on several leaves, small horizontal strip torn from lower outer corner of title affecting music on verso, but expertly repaired with a facsimile strip on both sides. Early signature on title. Köchel 497; Haberkamp, page 266.The Sonata . 497 is one of Mozart's final two essays in a form he had made very much made his own. His earliest duet sonata, K. 19d in C major, dates from 1765 and is the only survivor of several probably composed during his childhood years for him and his sister Nannerl to play during the tours they were taken on by their father Leopold.
The present Sonata in F, composed in August of 1786, was likely written for Mozart's student, Franziska Jacquin (1769 - 1850), to whom he also dedicated the Kegelstatt Trio (k. 498) and other works, including the Sonata in C Major for four hand, K. 521, the following year. Mozart and the Jacquin family —father Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin and his youngest son, Gottfried Jacquin— were quite close friends. They performed house concerts together where Nikolaus played the flute and Franziska the piano. In a letter to Gottfried from 15 January 1787 Mozart praises Franziska's studiousness and diligence, and he dedicated a considerable number of works to the Jacquin family. Both parts of the Sonata are equally demanding, with little of the concertante character evident in the earlier duet sonatas.
"K. 497 in F is nearly as difficult as K. 521 and is a more serious work, if only because of the first Allegro. The magnificient slow introduction that precedes it, one of Mozart's greatest in the genre, sounds like a harbinger of the slow introductions that preceded two of the last four symphonies." (Daniel Heartz, "Mozart, Haydn and early Beethoven," p. 157) (7899)
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