Swingle Singers
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Universally known as the "Sonata facile (or semplice)," the relative ease of K. 545 has ensured that it has become the most of famous of all Mozart's piano sonatas, a work that scarcely a student of the instrument fails to learn at some point in his or her career. The entry in Mozart's own thematic catalog, dated June 26, 1788, adds that the sonata was intended "for beginners." Yet despite its fame today, the circumstances of its composition are not known, the original manuscript is lost, and the sonata was not published in Mozart's lifetime, the first edition appearing in 1805 from the press of the composer and publisher Johann André of Offenbach.