Piano Sonata no. 8 in A minor, K.310
Classical Sonata Piano solo ~16 min
In brief

This A minor sonata projects a dark, urgent mood, with stormy outbursts alternating with tense, more brittle ripostes rather than expansive lyricism. Technically you should focus first on Passages rapides (4.4/5), which require clean fingering and economical arm motion to keep articulation clear, and on Independence of the hands (4.4/5), where the left hand often sustains a steady rhythmic line while the right executes agile figures — work the dissociation of weight and the regularity of pulse. From the Classical period, this sonata occupies a distinctive place in Mozart’s piano output because of its minor key and dramatic character, standing apart from much of his lighter keyboard writing. I do not give specific reference recordings here because I am not fully certain I can name an interpreter universally accepted for this particular work without risk of error.

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Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
74/100
Advanced
Likely range : 71–78/100
Confidence : 75% · high confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
On the syllabus: Grade 8 ABRSM

Official level, taken from the exam syllabus.

Other syllabi : Trinity_London Grade 8 · RCM Grade 9

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

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Difficulty sources
Henle Verlag
7
74/100 normalised · 6 obs.
Combined exam syllabi
Grade 9
77/100 normalised
Combined exam syllabi
Grade 8
76/100 normalised · 2 obs.
MusicCoach consensus
69.0
69/100 normalised
Relative difficulty
98%
Among Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
99%
Era Classical
84%
Genre
Movements and pieces of this work

One rarely plays the whole work: each movement has its own level — often very different from the opus's overall score.

Estimated skills
Technique
Hand independence
1
Technique
Fast passages
1
Theory
Knowledge of forms
1
Interpretation
Dynamics
3
Theory
Harmonic analysis
2
Style
Classical style
1
Technique
Legato
1
Interpretation
Phrasing
2
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