Does anyone use a collection of sonatas with their students?
I have used Schirmer in the past and am in search of an alternative. A student is just beginning Mozart Sonata in D major, K 205b (284) (not to be confused with K 284c/311)
Is there a collection of various composers out there that would include this sonata?

In my local music stores, the only way I can buy this particular Mozart sonata is in the big Schirmer edition of just Mozart, or as a single sonata in Peters edition.

Thank you!

Hi Barb,

One of the more interesting collections is publish by Schott. Like the Schirmer, it's two volumes, but you'll find a number of composers you didn't know! Beethoven Op 49, n.2 is the half way point in difficulty.

I'm thinking Alfred has a 3 volume set, but not so many sonatinas in each volume. I'll have to dig on this one.

I also like the "by composer" sonatina series, like Diabelli, Kuhlau, etc.

Does the Schott have sonatas in it, too? Or just sonatinas?

Barb...for Mozart sonatas, I go with Henle Urtext. I've seen Vienna Urtext edition, which is also excellent.

Schirmer and Peters are god-awful. You might as well go for the free edition at www.imslp.org or the one at the official Mozart website from Austria, which has all of Mozart's music online.

Barb, unless you consider Mozart K545 and Beethoven Op 49 sonatas, they're all sonatinas.

I share AZN's opinion about the quality of Henle, but if they have a sonatina album, I haven't had a chance to read or use it.

The thing about sonatinas is there there are oodles of them, from early classical through romantic into contemporary idiom. And they vary in difficulty from the easiest Clementi to really quite difficult.

Most teachers, regretfully, tend to restrict themselves to repertoire they themselves learned as students, placing their teacher on a pedestal or worse, considering him god-like. For me, one of the great joys of teaching is having time to read through repertoire I never, ever heard, exploring so-called lessor composers, discovering little jewels. How many of you have ever played anything by Hoffmeister? He was Beethoven's publisher, at least for a while, and wrote some real gems that fire up students.

Barb, I just realized that I misread your post, you're looking for sonatas, not sonatinas. Well, FWIW, when students get to the level of Sonatas, I tend to get them urtext versions with good fingerings, either single editions or as part of a composer set. Henle is my main source, but they only print compositions which are out of copyright protection, so have very limited contemporary works.

Looks like Henle is the way to go. My issue will be educating the parent on reasons to buy good quality scores. She will balk at the price.

This student is really excited about learning this particular Mozart sonata and I want to get him the best edition possible. Bad print, odd fingerings, and other issues with certain editions could stop this kid in his tracks with such a piece.