I’ve been gradually playing through the whole volume of Mozart piano sonatas, and the other day I reached the B flat Sonata, K333.

This piece holds unpleasant memories for me because when I was doing my O-levels, or Highers, I forget which, I had to perform some of it from memory as part of an exam. It was an arduous time in school life for all of us doing national exams – just endless study and revision. Anyway, as well as all the other subjects I had to revise, I had to practise the first movement of K333.

As you’ll know if you play the piece, the fingering is very tricky in places. I was still finding the fingering tricky when the day of the exam arrived. Even worse, during the exam, nerves made me forget at which octave various phrases occurred. I suddenly couldn’t think whether such-and-such a phrase was in this octave … or the one above … or the one below. I kept going but my heart was thumping.

You may think I can’t have practised the piece enough for muscle memory to guide me to the right octave at the right time. Perhaps I hadn’t. Anyway, it was all most disconcerting. When I see the score of that sonata, the precarious feeling returns.

The other day, however, when I turned the page and K333 came next, I sighed and started playing it. Would you believe, all the tricky fingering came out perfectly, although I hadn’t played the piece for quite a while. All the places which once gave me trouble sailed by insouciantly. And yet I had done no preparatory practice on it or made any effort to remind myself of the fingering.

What a piece of luck! I could analyse it (eg. I have more experience now; I wasn’t under any kind of strain) but maybe better just to breathe deeply and be grateful.