STEVE HORN --- ON MOZART (The following is an excerpt of a recent in-depth correspondance with Steve)... It appears there are certain stages to Mozart's sonatas. There is the collection of early "Munich" sonatas that he wrote all in one year. K279 through K284. In my humble opinion, there is nothing spectacular going on in any of these. (Even though I play a few of them) Two years later in Mannheim, he wrote K309. In the outer movements there is same old stuff as before, but that MIDDLE MOVEMENT shows him moving in a new direction.   In my opinion, Mozart's sonatas really began to get interesting at K311 and later. That middle movement was a hint of what was to come.   (*note 311 was composed BEFORE 310, even though the numbers are backwards..anyways..) It turns out that Mozart wrote more piano concertos than sonatas (the total opposite of Beethoven). There are two possible reasons. Either he was commissioned more often for concertos, or perhaps he saw more POSSIBILITIES in the concerto form. Despite everything he did in his sonatas none of them are comparable to what he does in his concertos. The only solo work that comes close is his fantasy K457. Comparably, his sonatas are almost like little study pieces. I'm convinced that he saved his best themes for his concertos. And I mean BEST THEMES as in, all his works, even his symphonies and operas. For some good themes check out the first movement of no.10 (duel pianos baby!) and the middle mvt of no.11. Concerto no.21 has recently blown me away. The middle movement is famous and it is on alot of those "Favorite Classical Works" anthologies that they sell at Wal-mart. But that first movement is unreal.   I think its the best piece of work that man ever wrote. It is connected to the cosmos! It also demonstrates that Mozart could think outside of the 1-4-5 chord structure.. I have more on this below...