Mozart on the classical guitar is rarer than one might expect. The composer left nothing for the instrument, and the transparency of his writing exposes every weakness in a transcription: there is nowhere to hide behind resonance. In this Siccas Media recording, Ksenia Ecgardt takes on Mozart's Sonata K. 547a in an arrangement by Vladimir Mityakov.
About the Sonata K. 547a
The Köchel number tells a small story of its own. K. 547 is a sonata in F major that Mozart wrote in 1788 and described himself as a little keyboard sonata for beginners with a violin. K. 547a is a keyboard sonata in F major assembled from that material — its movements draw on K. 547 and on the Rondo of the well-known C major sonata K. 545. Whether Mozart put this version together himself has never been established, and the catalogue lists it among the works of uncertain attribution.
What is certain is that the music works beautifully on the guitar. Mozart's textures here are light and clearly voiced: melody, a moving middle voice and a bass that mostly outlines the harmony — a layout the guitar can hold without strain. The difficulty is elsewhere. Classical phrasing demands absolute evenness of touch, and Mozart's silences carry as much weight as his notes. There is no rubato to rescue an uneven scale.
Mozart and the Guitar
Guitarists have been borrowing from Mozart since the instrument's classical period. Fernando Sor built one of the guitar's most famous concert works on a Mozart theme — the Variations on a Theme by Mozart, Op. 9, on a melody from The Magic Flute — and that piece remains a cornerstone of the repertoire. You can read about it in our article on Sor's Mozart Variations. Arrangements like Mityakov's continue a tradition rather than breaking with one.
About Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) needs no introduction, but his relationship with the guitar deserves one: it is essentially non-existent. He wrote for the mandolin, and the guitar was rising in popularity in Vienna during his final years, yet he left the instrument nothing. Everything guitarists play of his is transcription — which is why the quality of an arrangement matters so much, and why a convincing Mozart performance on guitar is a genuine achievement rather than a curiosity.
Watch the Performance
For more transcriptions and the questions they raise, see our Bach repertoire guide, and browse our overview of famous classical guitar pieces.
