Grading Mozart Piano Sonatas

[Daniel_piano]

Can anyone provide the grades for all the 19  Mozart Piano Sonatas, from easiet to hardest ?

Thanks
Daniel

[abe]

lol, so there are 19 sonatas? My URTEXT EDITION only lists 18. WHat is this? I literally spent like 20 minutes comparing the table of contents of my two editions, seeing which sonata was left out and/or added.

wow, sorry for the off topic

[Daniel_piano]

lol, so there are 19 sonatas? My URTEXT EDITION only lists 18. WHat is this? I literally spent like 20 minutes comparing the table of contents of my two editions, seeing which sonata was left out and/or added.

wow, sorry for the off topic

Here's the table of contents of my edition so that you can check what sonata is being left out

Mozart Sonata: Table of Contents

Let me know

Daniel

[bernhard]

Can anyone provide the grades for all the 19  Mozart Piano Sonatas, from easiet to hardest ?

Thanks
Daniel

Grade 5:

K 545 in C major

Grade 6:

K 280 in F major
K 282 in Eb major
K 570 in Bb major

Grade 7:

K 279 in C major
K 283 in G major
K311 in D major
K331 in A major

Grade 8:

K281 in Bb major
K284 in D major
K309 in C major
K330 in C major
K333 in Bb major
K475 (Fantasia) in C minor
K457 in C minor

Grade 8+:

K 310 in A minor
K332 in F major
K533/K494 in F major
K 576 in D major


(ABRSM grades vary from 1 – easy – to 8 – advanced – and are all completely subjective)

Best wishes,
Bernhard

[Daniel_piano]

Thanks a lot Bernhard 

Daniel

[etudes]

hello Bernhard
nice information
but i think u are a bit underrated K570 and K330 IMO
thanks
regards

[kghayesh]

yeah and i think also that K.545 is a bit above grade 5.
If compared to those Kuhlau sonatines that are in grade 5..

[etudes]

and i think
mozart is very very hard to play it good
i would put almost of his sonata as 8+ depend on how good of the performance

[thierry13]

They are the ABRSM grades, not Bernhard's choice, and is a totally subjective thing, like he mentioned. Please don't begin to argue on things like that.

[bernhard]

They are the ABRSM grades, not Bernhard's choice, and is a totally subjective thing, like he mentioned. Please don't begin to argue on things like that.

thierry is absolutely right.

It is all subjective.

But, by all means argue about it. However, if you disagree with the grades I posted, why not post your own ordering of the sonatas? This way readers of this thread may have a number of different opinions on the relative difficulty of the sonatas.

Perhaps even better then grading them is to order them in progressive order fo the difficulty, that is from the ones which should be learned first to the ones that should be left for last.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[etudes]

ok bernhard
by no mean offence
btw i cant put the sonata in order of difficulty bcoz i dont play them all
so wait until i study them all then i will put it
regards

[Groggy60]

The Allegro from 570 is in the RCM grade 9 book from the 1970's.

[sznitzeln]

As many others have said on this forum... Mozart is not so difficult compared to many other composers if you talk about the technical level... but many think playing Mozart right is the most difficult thing... and I encourage you to delve into his music, because its really fantastic and will make you a better pianist.

Things that are difficult in Mozart:
You have not so many notes to hide behind, very clean playing is expected...
You must be very calm in your rythm and phrasing, without getting dull.
There is a whole lot of things that are not in the notes... Mozart has moving accents and culminations that are not always intuitive. Other german music is often EIN zwei drei fur (no pun intended)
But Mozart loved italian music.

You need a large knowledge to understand Mozarts works... My teacher says that to play good Mozart you must first understand his operas.
Different voices often act like different instruments of the orchestra. Getting the nice sound and continuity is difficult...
I believe that if you listen to Mozart operas you will recognize a lot of things in his sonatas... one example: Compare the flute playing of tamino in Zauberflöte with some themes in 10th sonata in C-major (K330) 1st movement...
In the second movement the initial 3 notes should sound like a violin stroking in 1 direction, therefore add a slight crescendo. In the 3rd movement the left hands initial notes represent cello, etc, etc

[bernhard]

ok bernhard
by no mean offence

None taken.

In case my answer was misunderstood, I did not mean to sound offended. I sincerely like when different difficulty opinions are posted. I may or may not review my own, but it is nevertheless interesting to see how other people react to the same piece(s).

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Autumndark]

To whoever gave the grades -- I'm a little confused.
I played 545 for the First Concert Cert. when I was .. . . eleven (?) and I know first concert comes between grades 5 and 6.  Then I played 570 for Performers Cert (TCL), which comes after grade 8, and it was my understanding that grade 8 Trinity was harder than grade 8 ABRSM.
I'm currently playing 457 for my ATCL next month . . . and that's significantly beyond the grade 8 mark. 
Where did you get the levels?

[possom46]

I played K282 for my grade 8 ABRSM, and am playing K576 for my LTCL, the K576 is very demanding though.

[kevonthegreatpianist]

Grade 5:

K 545 in C major

Grade 6:

K 280 in F major
K 282 in Eb major
K 570 in Bb major

Grade 7:

K 279 in C major
K 283 in G major
K311 in D major
K331 in A major

Grade 8:

K281 in Bb major
K284 in D major
K309 in C major
K330 in C major
K333 in Bb major
K475 (Fantasia) in C minor
K457 in C minor

Grade 8+:

K 310 in A minor
K332 in F major
K533/K494 in F major
K 576 in D major


(ABRSM grades vary from 1 – easy – to 8 – advanced – and are all completely subjective)

Best wishes,
Bernhard

I think this is a bit off. First of all, K 330, IMO, is much easier than it's listed. It should be in Grade 7, with some other sonatas. Second, the famous K 331 should be placed in Grade 8, because of the sixth varation of the 1st movement and the famous Alla Turca make the sonata very hard. The Alla Turca is a very hard movement that took me six months to master, and I still mess up. Here's my grading:

Intermediate:
-K 545

Late Intermediate:
-K 279
-K 281
-K 282
-K 283
-K 330
-K 333
-K 570

Early Advanced:
-K 280
-K 284
-K 309
-K 311
-K 331
-K 332
-K 457
-K 576

Advanced:
-K 310
-K 533/494

It's pretty subjective, widely because it's based on my opinion and my own style of grading is used. If you think this is wrong, reply. And btw, a Fantasia is NOT a Sonata, for people who think so, so I didn't include that on my list.

[amytsuda]

My teacher says "Mozart is too easy for children and too difficult for adults."

[kevonthegreatpianist]

My teacher says "Mozart is too easy for children and too difficult for adults."

ikr

[chopinawesome]

Easiest Sonatas:
K.545
K.282
K.280
KS.627
Part 2:
K.309
K.311
K.281
K.283
K.331
Part 3:
K.284
K.330
K.279
K.332
K.333
Part 4:
K.533
K.310
K.576
K.475 and Fantasie
K.547

I played a few of them. I like K.280,K.332,k.284,K.311,K.310 and K.331 the best.
I found this list somewhere

[chopinawesome]

Easiest Sonatas:
K.545
K.282
K.280
KS.627
Part 2:
K.309
K.311
K.281
K.283
K.331
Part 3:
K.284
K.330
K.279
K.332
K.333
Part 4:
K.533
K.310
K.576
K.475 and Fantasie
K.547

I played a few of them. I like K.280,K.332,k.284,K.311,K.310 and K.331 the best.
I found this list somewhere

I  added k.547a in the wrong area. It was supposed to be in Part 2. KS.627 is K.547a in my book.

[michael_c]

My teacher says "Mozart is too easy for children and too difficult for adults."

Your teacher is quoting Arthur Schnabel:

"The sonatas of Mozart are unique: too easy for children, too difficult for adults. Children are given Mozart to play because of the quantity of notes; grown ups avoid him because of the quality of notes."

[transitional]

Here are the Henle grades (out of 9, and arranged within sections by difficulty)

Please note that these are Henle's grades, not mine. I have not played all of the Mozart piano sonatas, however, I feel that they are a bit underrated compared to some other pieces I have played. For example, I have had an easy time on Chopin's Op. 9 No. 1 nocturne, which is grade 6. Compared to the K 279 sonata at a similar level, the sonata should have been grade 7 (or the nocturne should have been grade 5). However, the subjectivity of these ratings should be noted and can influence personal opinion based on your strengths.

Difficulty 4.5:
K 545

Difficulty 5:
K 282
K 280
K 309

Difficulty 5.5:
K 311
K 283
K 281
K 279
K 570
K 331

Difficulty 6:
K 284
K 333
K 332
K 330
K 457

Difficulty 6.5:
K 310

Difficulty 7:
K 533
K 576