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Film or television are sometimes media that can pick on a piece of music and make it
immediately known and loved by an enormous popular audience and that was just
what happened to Mozart's C major Concerto (K 467). The film in this case was the
rather sentimental story of Elvira Madigan directed by the Swede Bo Widerberg. So
well known did the slow movement of the Concerto become that since then the
Concerto itself has on many occasions been given the subtitle Elvira Madigan. The
association may seem inappropriate in some respects given the high quality of
Mozart's original conception but it has certainly given the opportunity for a wide
audience to become familiar with at least part of this major work.
Premiered by Mozart himself on March 10th 1785 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, the C
major Concerto follows its splendid predecessor in D minor by only a month and
clearly shows the composer at the height of his powers and mid-way through a series of
Piano Concertos that have become the cream of the crop. The opening Allegro
maestoso is permeated by a theme in March rhythm punctuated by fanfares in the
winds and an affecting and simple second subject. After the usual orchestral
introduction there is a particularly fine entrance for solo piano. The following
Andante, mentioned above in the context of the film, bases a soaring almost vocal
melody without words above a pizzicato string accompaniment. Finally, the Allegro
Vivace is a good humoured Rondo taking in several changes of key before reaching its
final Cadenza and Coda.
Mozart's keyboard Concertos were basically written for the early version of today's
pianoforte despite the efforts of some performers to claim certain works for the
harpsichord. In fact, Mozart did probably conceive the early Concertos of K 107 and
the first four in the numbered sequence of the twenty seven major Concertos for a
harpsichord. Those first four Concertos are also works which contain not original
music by Mozart but transcriptions of works by other contemporary composers -
perhaps well known at their time, but nowadays mostly forgotten with the exception
of C P E Bach.Mozart's own household contained its own pianos and he was keen on
innovation rather than reliance on the older types of instruments. The first early
Concertos are all in major keys and follow a model of pastiche that stretches to the
present in works as diverse as those by Stravinsky,Webern and Britten.
Written in Salzburg in April 1767, the first of the Piano Concertos (K37) is in F
major and scored for oboes and horns with strings and a pianoforte or harpsichord.
The Concerto is based upon music Mozart would have encountered whilst travelling
in Paris between 1763 and 1766. The opening Allegro is taken from a set of Keyboard
and Violin Sonatas by the St Petersburg Kapellmeister Hermann Raupach which had
already been published in Paris in 1756. The C major Andante is of unknown origin
whilst the final Allegro is based on work by the Strasbourg based composer Leontzi
Honauer. Although these early Concertos may have benefited somewhat from the
help of Mozart's father, Leopold, they were conceived as travelling cards for the young
virtuoso player,Wolfgang himself.
It is fair enough to say that the C major Concerto (K 503) is the concluding work in
the series of great Concertos composed between 1784 and 1786. After this there is a
break in composition before the two final Concertos where Mozart concentrated on
his final major Symphonies and the opera Don Giovanni. Indeed this Concerto was
followed immediately by the Prague Symphony and the C major Quintet rather than
any further Concertos. The C major is a suitably grand work related to its predecessor
in the same key, K 467.
Again Mozart takes a March theme for his opening Allegro, a theme which enters in
the minor key scored for the string section and flutes, oboes, bassoons and horns.
The mood of the movement is already symphonic, pointing forward to what was to
follow. Despite it's marking as an Andante, the central movement is full of nobility
and takes on the character of a deeply felt slow movement. Finally, the concluding
Rondo is a less exuberant piece than may normally have been expected at this point,
more in a style of confident affirmation which at times becomes even stormy and
agitated. Mozart has been accused of a degree of indifference at this point but this is
hardly relevant in context of the drive and positive nature of the Concerto as a whole.
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