Though 18 piano sonatas is a respectable amount for any composer, Mozart also left almost as many ╩ namely 15 ╩ variation cycles. Variations on popular themes, but also on original tunes, were a kind of fashion craze back then, and Mozart made his contribution in this field as well. Certainly, financial considerations played a role here, after all, fashionable items sell well. Thus Mozart’s variations, in contrast to his piano sonatas, were all published during his lifetime. The fact that these