Piano Sonata for Four Hands (Fragment) in G major, K. 357/497a
von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s Piano Sonata for Four Hands (Fragment) in G major, K. 357/497a, is an unfinished keyboard-duet movement from Vienna (1786), dating from a period when he was writing his most sophisticated chamber and keyboard music. Only the opening movement survives, breaking off mid-course—enough to show a confident, concertante handling of four-hand texture, but not enough to reveal the intended overall design.[1]
What Is Known
The surviving music is an autograph fragment for piano four hands in G major, generally dated to Vienna in 1786 (Mozart aged 30), and transmitted as a single incomplete movement labeled Allegro.[1][2] Modern editions reproduce the fragment from the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe.[1] survives, and the work is therefore performed—when performed at all—either as a torso or in editorial completions supplied by later musicians.[3]
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Musical Content
What remains is a brisk Allegro that already treats the duet as a true dialogue: the two players exchange bright, keyboard-filling figuration while the texture alternates between homophonic (together in rhythmic blocks) and antiphonal (answering across the keyboard) writing.[1] can be observed in full.1(https://imslp.org/wiki/Allegro_in_G_major%2C_K.357%2F497a_%28Mozart%2C_Wolfgang_Amadeus%29
[1] IMSLP page for Mozart’s Allegro in G major, K. 357/497a (includes notes and reference to Neue Mozart-Ausgabe placement).
[2] French Wikipedia overview of the unfinished Sonata for piano four hands in G major, K. 357/497a (basic dating and status as incomplete).
[3] Universal Edition catalogue entry noting a published completion to the fragment sonata K. 357 (editorial/performance context).