A score is available to download here.
This arrangement of the Sonata KV. 497 by Mozart for guitar duo aims to suggest a version of the piece as it may have been made around 1800, i.e. the way a guitarist-composer of that period might have written the arrangement, had he known Mozart’s original composition.
The Sonata KV. 497 was composed in the summer of 1786 in Vienna. Mozart indicated the piece in his private catalogue on August 1st 1786 as “A Piano Sonata for four hands”.
KV. 497 was published in 1787 by Artaria & Co in Vienna as a “Grande Sonate for four hands on the harpsichord or forte-piano”. Thus both the harpsichord and the forte-piano might have been intended as contemporary instruments. Guitarists should bear in mind the sound of a forte-piano in Mozart’s lifetime, when performing the sonata.
This transcription is dedicated to two musical friends, Jesper Sivebæk and Ulla Kappel.
Peter Lagersted
Copenhagen July 29th 2023