Wider Listening

Mozart composed 24 sonatas for the newly invented piano during the Classical period. This first movement of this piece is well known and sounds very restrained and elegant when compared to the intense drama of the Beethoven set work, composed 11 years later. Like Beethoven's, this first movement is also in sonata form, although Mozart adopts a more straightforward, textbook working of his material. Unconventionally, however, Mozart begins the recapitulation of this sonata in the subdominant key of F major - highly unusual for the time.

The Beethoven movement is far more complex in its key structure and harmony. The keyboard textures are much lighter, too, in the Mozart sonata; and the opening theme in the right hand is accompanied in the left hand by a typical Classical left hand bass accompaniment. An example of this type of accompaniment can be found in the Beethoven sonata at bars 89-110. Dynamic contrasts too are much more measured, varying soft and loud sections rather than the frequent dramatic crescendos and accented notes of the stormy Beethoven sonata.

Buena Vista Social Club is an unusual album in that it was recorded in 1996 and released in 1997 but was the result of a project that aimed to capture the sounds of Cuban music's 'golden era. As such, although it was recorded in the 1990s, it captures the music of the 1940s and 1950s, performed by musicians of the period in a 1950s Havana studio. The main vocalist on the album, Ibrahim Ferrer, was a Cuban star in the 1950s, but had long since stopped making music. He was brought in off the streets to record the album along with many of Cuba's other famous musicians from that era.

The recording took about six days in total.

The album itself tells the story of Cuban music stretching back to La Bayamesa, which was written in 1869. It includes songs about Cuba's history and mixes musical styles from the city and the country. There are also some instrumentals with a strong jazz influence, highlighting the fusion element of the album. The 89-year-old singer and guitarist Compay Segundo was central in choosing which songs should be included on the album. Other musicians included the American guitarist Ry Cooder and the Cuban trumpeter Manuel

'Guajiro' Mirabal. The album became a worldwide sensation and relaunched the careers of many of the musicians who contributed.