Piano Sonata No. 6 in D major, “Dürnitz” (K. 284)
de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 6 in D major (K. 284), composed in Munich in 1775 when he was 19, closes a remarkable set of early keyboard sonatas that his family reportedly called the “difficult” sonatas. Nicknamed the “Dürnitz” Sonata after Baron Thaddäus von Dürnitz, it stands out for its unusually expansive finale: an Andante theme followed by 12 variations—an imaginative scale rare in Mozart’s sonatas.
Background and Context
In the winter of 1774–75 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was in Munich, drawn there by practical ambitions as much as artistic ones: the city offered contacts, performances, and—most urgently—work connected to the staging of his opera La finta giardiniera (premiered in Munich in January 1775) [3]. Alongside operatic duties, Mozart cultivated the flourishing market for keyboard music—music intended for domestic performance and for skilled amateurs who wanted to play what was new, fashionable, and (ideally) tailored to their abilities.
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K. 284 belongs to a group of six sonatas (K. 279–284) written around this period, a set the Mozart family referred to as the “difficult sonatas” [1]. The nickname “Dürnitz” points to Thaddäus, Baron von Dürnitz—an amateur musician and Bavarian officer associated with Munich; tradition connects him with the commission (and, in some accounts, with tardy payment) [4]. Whatever the precise financial story, the association with a high-level amateur is musically plausible: the sonata is full of brilliance and athletic handwork, yet it is designed idiomatically for the keyboard.
Composition
The Piano Sonata No. 6 in D major (K. 284) is securely dated to Munich in 1775 [4]. In modern cataloguing it is listed for clavier—a flexible 18th-century term that can encompass harpsichord and the increasingly prominent fortepiano [1]. That ambiguity matters: the writing invites crisp articulation and rapid passagework (harpsichord-friendly), but also thrives on dynamic shading and coloristic contrasts that the fortepiano could provide.
Placed at the end of the K. 279–284 set, K. 284 feels like a culmination: broader in span, more theatrical in gesture, and more experimental in its finale than the earlier sonatas in the group. It is an early sign that Mozart’s keyboard music—often treated as “student” repertoire today—could already think in large forms and in quasi-orchestral textures.
Form and Musical Character
Mozart casts the sonata in three movements, but the proportions are strikingly unconventional: the finale is not a quick Presto dash, but a substantial variation set.
- I. Allegro (D major) [4]
- II. Rondeau en polonaise (A major) [4]
- III. Tema. Andante with 12 variations (D major) [4]
I. Allegro
The opening projects a confident, public-facing D major—music with what can sound like “orchestral” thinking in keyboard terms: strong unisons, bustling figuration, and a sense of staged contrast between registers. Particularly characteristic is Mozart’s flair for turning simple keyboard textures into dialogue—bass against treble, chordal affirmations against quicksilver running lines—so that the movement reads as a drama rather than a display exercise. The writing also indulges in visually theatrical keyboard effects (including hand-crossings), a kind of virtuoso rhetoric that would have delighted an accomplished amateur [3].
II. Rondeau en polonaise
The second movement is one of the sonata’s special signatures: Mozart labels it Rondeau en polonaise, evoking a polonaise—a stylized Polish dance that 18th-century audiences recognized as courtly and slightly exotic [4]. In A major (the dominant), the movement offers elegant ornamentation and rhythmic snap, balancing songful lines with decorative turns. It also hints at Mozart the dramatist: small dynamic surprises and rhetorical pauses give the music a conversational poise, as if characters were trading refined gestures across a salon.
III. Theme and 12 Variations
The finale is the work’s boldest choice: an Andante theme followed by 12 variations [4]. In effect, Mozart replaces the expected fast finale with a large-scale form that can encompass multiple affects—brilliance, tenderness, wit, and contrapuntal ingenuity—while still feeling unified.
What makes this movement particularly deserving of attention is how it treats variation not as ornament, but as narrative. Mozart intensifies harmony and texture over the course of the set, exploring chromatic inflections, keyboard “orchestration,” and contrasting characters. Late in the sequence, the music can turn unexpectedly inward—an expressive depth that foreshadows the mature Mozart’s capacity to make even a decorative genre feel psychologically charged [3]. The final turn toward a lighter close does not negate that depth; it frames it, the way an opera might return to social surfaces after a moment of confession.
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Reception and Legacy
K. 284 has never had the ubiquitous cultural footprint of Mozart’s late Viennese sonatas, yet it has remained a staple for pianists because it bridges worlds: it is both an advanced “Munich” sonata for a skilled amateur and a genuinely ambitious composition that stretches the genre from within. The Mozarteum’s Köchel catalogue highlights the K. 279–284 group as the family’s “difficult sonatas,” implicitly acknowledging their elevated technical and musical demands [1].
In modern performance the “Dürnitz” Sonata rewards an approach that remembers its clavier origins: clarity of articulation, careful voicing, and a willingness to treat textures as theatrical cues rather than as neutral figuration. Heard in that light, K. 284 becomes more than an early sonata with a famous nickname: it is a young Mozart’s confident argument that the keyboard sonata could sustain opera-like character, large-scale architecture, and genuine invention—already in 1775.
Partitura
Descarga e imprime la partitura de Piano Sonata No. 6 in D major, “Dürnitz” (K. 284) de Virtual Sheet Music®.
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Köchel catalogue entry for K. 284 (work details; note on the “difficult sonatas” K. 279–284).
[2] IMSLP work page for Piano Sonata No. 6 in D major, K. 284/205b (basic cataloging and editions).
[3] Program-note PDF (cloudfront-hosted) discussing K. 284 in the context of Munich 1775 and *La finta giardiniera*, and describing musical features of the movements and variations.
[4] Wikipedia: Piano Sonata No. 6 (Mozart) (date/place, nickname, movement list).