Curiously enough, only one of Mozart’s eighteen piano sonatas (and also only one of his 23 piano concerti) is in the pianistically rewarding key of G major: the sonata K. 283. It numbers among those six sonatas K. 279–284 that were probably written in Munich at the beginning of 1775, and is one of the favorites from this first set of sonatas among teachers and students alike.

Played at the correct tempo, this sonata, although technically not too challenging, rarely fails to have its desired e...