This dark and tragic sonata in A minor, composed in Paris in 1778, tends to be linked with the death of Mozart’s mother on 3 July 1778. While this of course cannot be ruled out, not a single concrete piece of authentic evidence exists that points to such a connection.

Use of a minor tonality as the compositional realization of a personal experience of pain is a sort of interpretation that also falls considerably too short, Mozart’s art is far too multifaceted for it to be pinned so one-dimens...