Listening to the Piano Sonatas

If there is one area of Mozart's output I find particularly fascinating it is that of his piano sonatas. With the exception of Sonatas 1-5 I find all of the piano sonatas compelling listening. These latter works form constantly refreshing and poignantly beautiful sound as they are played, their internal dramas form and reform in my mind. I think Mozart's mastery of the keyboard is one of the finest and I have no doubt he was of the virtuoso class as I hear them yet again. Where Bach's tremendous outpourings for the keyboard tend to ramble interminably, Mozart's compositions rivet the listener to every note and one pricks up one's ears in anticipation of his emphatic rhythms and charming melodies.
Sonatas 1-5 are also interesting works but tend to throw the listener into a more contemplative, reflective mood. If the mind is attempting to spring into action Sonatas 6-8 with their emphasis on the virtuoso keyboard come to the listening fore. Sonatas 9-12 are a core of beautiful but bright listening, the slower movements making for deeply poignant moods. Sonatas 13-14 including the Fantasia in C Minor are brilliantly dramatic works containing many deeply moving slow passages. Sonatas 15-17 including the Sonata in F Major once again show off Mozart's sense of subtle, moving charm.
In contrast, I found many of the Piano Variations much duller on the ear, but when Mozart commands attention, even at times in these, he does so completely. The Sonatas form a plateau of intense listening pleasure and they move the mind towards rationality, each note following the next with a mathematical precision. The Bach experience in "The Well Tempered Clavier" is quite a different one, with polyphonic effects being entirely absent from the Mozart works. You feel that Mozart's Sonatas were intended to directly engage a small but attentive audience, whereas the endless Fugues of Bach are for rambling around the keyboard mainly to amuse Bach himself. Mozart's themes have a definite beginning, a middle section and an end whereas after listening to many of Bach's Fugues the listener just remains hopelessly confused. I can see Mozart performing his sonatas in a drawing room setting-you tend to envisage Bach banging away merrily to himself in an attic somewhere, not absolutely certain where the music is going.
Some stretches along Bach's Immense keyboard highway can startle you with their intensity, even virtuosity, but I never return time and time again to listen there as I do with Mozart.