Forgetting and improvising the end of a Mozart sonata

[OscoBosco]

On my last recital, I performed the first two movements of Mozart's Piano Sonata in F Major K533. Coming to a close in the second movement, I forgot the chord I was supposed to play and started to improvise through a variety of keys until arriving back home to B Flat Major for the final remaining bars of the piece. If you look closely, you can see me smiling all the way through the ending.

Skip to 5:30 if you don't want to listen to the whole thing––but it is a good Mozart movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taCy8JsoqVc

[vandermolen]

On my last recital, I performed the first two movements of Mozart's Piano Sonata in F Major K533. Coming to a close in the second movement, I forgot the chord I was supposed to play and started to improvise through a variety of keys until arriving back home to B Flat Major for the final remaining bars of the piece. If you look closely, you can see me smiling all the way through the ending.

Skip to 5:30 if you don't want to listen to the whole thing––but it is a good Mozart movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taCy8JsoqVc

I wouldn't have noticed anything amiss - well done!

[Marc]

I wouldn't have noticed anything amiss - well done!

It's probably the Mozartian way of solving problems like these, too.
Just carry on and improvise.

[(poco) Sforzando]

You're not the first. In recital once, I heard Sergio Fiorentino drop 4-5 pages from the Beethoven op. 110. Midway through the Goldbergs, Charles Rosen had a memory slip and had to stop completely before he could find his place again. But those are probably a little harder to improvise your way out of.

[Holden]

The D minor Fantasy K397 was never finished by Mozart so I imagine that early performers had to do what you did - improvise. Today, nearly all pianists use the ending written by August Muller. Uchida uses her own which I prefer to the Muller.