Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Sonatas

There is a lot of truth in Arthur Schnabel’s famous remark, “The sonatas of Mozart are unique; they are too easy for children, and too difficult for pianists”.
Although most of Mozart’s piano sonatas were intended for his own use in performance, some were in fact written for pedagogical purposes.
The Sonata No. 16 in C major was described by Mozart himself in his own thematic catalogue as "for beginners," and it is sometimes known by the nickname Sonata facile or Sonata semplice. It is possibly the most famous one, just because so many people have tried to play it. Another well-known sonata is the one in A major, No. 11. The last movement, Alla Turca, often heard on its own, imitates the sound of Turkish Janissary bands, much in vogue at that time. This kind of music was sometimes performed on pianos built with a "Turkish stop", allowing it to be embellished with extra percussion effects.
The two sonatas in the minor mode also belong to the more famous. Written around the time of the death of Mozart´s mother, Sonata No. 8 in A minor is the darkest of the series. The C minor Sonata, No. 14, is often preceded in performance by the Fantasy in C minor, K. 475, completed some seven months after the sonata. The two works were published together as the same opus.