This sonata is part of the earliest group of Mozart’s Sonatas K279 - 284. It is thought that some of the sonatas were written at the end of 1774 in Salzburg and the rest were completed whilst Mozart was in Munich for the premiere of his opera La finta giardiniera.
The Sonata in F major no. 2 K280 is considered a useful teaching piece however Mozart called them “the six difficult sonatas”. Mozart no doubt considered that the difficulty when playing these sonatas was in how the character and style is expressed to the listener. In this set of six sonatas, the difficulty of each sonata increases numerically. Some experts think that Mozart thought of publishing these six sonatas as a set because publishers at the time required an easy one to start with and a harder one to complete the set. Only the last sonata of the set was published in Mozart’s lifetime.
In Jane Mcgrath’s excellent book ‘The Pianist’s Guide to Standard Teaching and Performance Literature’ published in 1995, states ‘ the opening Allegro Assai is the most frequently encountered. The various rhythmic values that are juxtaposed require a performer with a strong rhythmic sense. The slow movement is especially beautiful’.
The first and third movements are both in triple time; this was unusual for the time in which the sonata was composed. It takes about 14 minutes to play the complete sonata.
At this time I can only find the third movement being part of an examination syllabus. This was for Garde 7 ABRSM in 2011 - 2012.
The sonata contains three movements.
First movement Allegro assai
This movement is in sonata form, it contains three themes and has the character of a lively minuet.
Second movement Adagio
This movement is in the tonic minor being F minor. It is the only piano sonata written by Mozart with a slow movement in a minor key. The movement is basically a siciliana and the mood is mournful and tragic with the opening resembling a funeral march.
Third movement Presto
This movement is quite short.
References
www.wikipedia.com
Below is Stewart Macpherson’s Analytical edition of this sonata.