In the first few posts under "My Musical Life" I wrote about the beginnings of my career as a pianist and that my very first teacher was a Mrs. Woliver, one of those neighborhood housewives who gave piano lessons in the evenings and on weekends. Though I never kept in touch with Mrs. Woliver after leaving her tutelage to pursue more advanced piano studies, I have never forgotten the solid foundation she gave me, nor her gentle patience.
She started me off with a series of books that so many other pianists start off with, the John Thompson series, the first of which is Teaching Little Fingers to Play. Over the next year or so I moved rapidly through the next three or four books of the series. The most memorable pieces from that series were short, simplified snatches from larger works by major composers: a minuet by Bach, a sarabande by Handel, a bit of Beethoven—and the first half of the theme from the first movement of Mozart's Sonata in A Major, K. 331. I was so taken with Mozart's elegantly tender theme that when a few years later I bought his complete sonatas, K. 331 was the first one I wanted to study. For some reason, though, I worked on several of the others before I finally got around to it, and I never performed it or used it in competition. Rather, the D Major K. 576 became my big "war horse" Mozart sonata.
After I moved to Houston to immerse myself in opera, I would from time to time play through the K. 331 for renewal and relaxation. I still have a soft spot in my heart for it. It did, after all, introduce me to one of my greatest musical friends—Wolfie.
P. S. Just a few years ago, I saw Mrs. Woliver's obituary in the paper. She had continued to teach piano till almost the end of her life.
Here is the great Walter Gieseking playing the first movement of K. 331. Perhaps because of the time constraints of older recordings, he doesn't take any of the repeats. Still, this performance is matchless in beauty, elegance, phrasing, and articulation.
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