Mozart has rarely written in the so minor tone, his only other movement in this tone being the quartet's Adagio in D major for flute, violin, viola and cello K 285, composed eleven years earlier. According to the catalog of the composer's works, the Adagio in B minor K 540 was completed on March 19, 1788. It is probable that it was also published that same year at the publisher Hoffmeister in Vienna, but no copy been found until today. At this time, the composer was in a serious financial crisis and the public began to lose interest in his works. This sublime and solemn piece, of a deep emotional intensity, is none the less one of his most grandiose and exceptional piano works. The Adagio opens on a descending fourth followed by an ascending sixth, a motive very common in Mozart found especially at the beginning of the first movement of the sonata in C major K 309 and that of the second movement of the famous sonata in A major K 331. The autograph manuscript preserved at the Stiftelsen Musikkulturens Främjande in Stockholm which was used for the preparation of the present edition is a copy of his own carefully prepared by Mozart himself.

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Adagio in B minor K 540 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Piano. Advanced. MCL885