Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed sonatas for violin and piano from his earliest youth until his final years. However, while the early pieces are little more than piano sonatas with violin accompaniments, the more mature works of 1778 begin to integrate the violin and piano parts more closely and to highlight the growing independence and virtuosity of the violin.

Mozart composed several violin sonatas during his stay in Mannheim in 1778. These first mature sonatas reflect some of the ‘Sturm und Drang’ atmosphere of the music at the court of Mannheim, which emboldened Mozart to write in a freer and more dramatic mode.