Violin Sonata in C major (K. Anh.C 23.01) — spurious
von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Violin Sonata in C major (K. Anh.C 23.01) is a dubiously transmitted work traditionally associated with Mozart and tentatively dated to 1784. Surviving sources point to a short three-movement sonata for violin and keyboard, but modern cataloguing treats the attribution as incorrect—leaving the piece on the margins of the Mozartian violin-sonata tradition.
Background and Context
The work catalogued as K. Anh.C 23.01 appears in modern Köchel documentation as a sonata for violin and keyboard whose composer is unknown, despite its long-standing circulation under Mozart’s name. The Köchel Verzeichnis entry lists its authenticity as “incorrectly assigned,” its transmission as extant, and a date of 1784, with no secure place of origin attached. [1]
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
If the year 1784 is even approximately right, the context would be Mozart’s intensely productive Viennese period—when his genuine sonatas for keyboard with violin accompaniment increasingly balance brilliance at the keyboard with more conversational violin writing. Yet K. Anh.C 23.01 survives as a peripheral document: an approachable domestic-style sonata that sits closer to the market for publishable “Mozart” miniatures than to the technically and rhetorically ambitious duo writing of the authenticated Vienna sonatas.
Musical Character
K. Anh.C 23.01 is transmitted as a compact, three-movement sonata for violin and keyboard (listed simply as vl, clav), laid out as:
Even allowing for uncertain authorship, the plan is stylistically familiar: a quick opening movement, a lyrical slow movement, and a closing minuet that favors poise over display. The catalogue’s description of an extant score and early print transmission (including an 1804 first edition noted in the same record) suggests a piece meant to be readily performable in the salon—keyboard-led in texture, with the violin often functioning as melodic partner and coloristic reinforcement rather than as a virtuoso protagonist. [1]
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Köchel Verzeichnis entry for KV Anh. C 23.01 (status/authenticity, dating, instrumentation, movement titles, transmission and publication note).