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The Koechel number of Mozart's C minor Concerto (K 491) places the work
immediately before the great masterpiece of "The Marriage of Figaro", thus at the
very height of Mozart's achievement. Just as the C minor Serenade has a relationship
with the "Seraglio", this work in that same key relates to "Figaro" and takes from that
Opera, the other side to the obvious comedy - that is a darker and more tragic mood,
something that relates in the future to the world of Beethoven and specifically to his
own C minor Concerto.
Mozart's orchestration here is far from simple and the work is in a truly symphonic
style including both clarinets and oboes and with a considerable accent on the wind
writing in general. The work is in the usual three movement form beginning with an
Allegro movement written in three/four time and of some relatively considerable
length. The progress that Mozart has made away from the simple March like
openings of earlier Concertos is clear in this introduction and although the final
Allegretto returns to that March-like idea, this time there is something quite new as
the movement takes on a series of variations and episodes. Framed by these two
movements is the stillness of the Larghetto, introduced by a few bars simply from the
piano and then followed by an orchestral dialogue the textures then become richer as
the soloist and orchestra take turns to embroider the basic fabric in one of the most
uplifting slow movements.
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.
Completed in 1767, the third of the Piano Concertos (K 40) is in D major and scored
for an orchestra of oboes, horns, trumpets and strings. Based upon music Mozart
would have encountered whilst travelling in Paris between 1763 and 1766, for a time
these four early Concertos were thought of as being original Mozart compositions.
The opening Allegro is based on work by the Strasbourg based composer Leontzi
Honauer with a central Andante in G minor based on music by the then well known
and respected Parisian master Johann Gottfried Eckard, a pupil of Carl Phillip
Emanuel Bach. It is from the Bach son himself that the third movement takes its
material - an arrangement of his 1760's short piece "La Boehmer" 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.
The C major Concerto (K 415) is one of a group of three Concertos that Mozart
composed over the winter of 1782-1783, the first group of Concertos that were to be
composed for Vienna. Mozart's idea here was to have the Concertos published,
possibly in Paris, and he was not ready to take any great risks in alarming his public
with innovations of any kind.Whatever may have come of that idea, the three
Concertos were eventually published in Vienna two years later, probably one of those
examples of Mozart's inability to deal too well with his own finances.
Mozart was eager to make the Concertos as acceptable as possible and thus they are
provided with "full" orchestration, in this case including trumpets or timpani or a
suggestion for performance with string quartet - in fact the wind parts merely double
those of the strings and are almost dispensable in that respect.. Nevertheless, those
trumpets and timpani do add a sense of brilliance to the Concerto in its full
orchestral guise. The conventional nature of the opening Allegro says it all, but
originally Mozart had planned to follow this with a slow movement in the minor key;
the possibility of that making this rather simple Concerto too serious for its intended
audience dissuaded him and the Andante is perhaps one of Mozart's least inspired
movements. All comes well though in the six/eight Finale, marked as an Allegro
Rondeau, when Mozart manages to insert his C minor episode amidst a great deal of
ornamentation.Whatever posterity's judgement may be, Mozart had at least
succeeded in pleasing his Viennese audience and making a handsome profit for the
Academy at its first performance.
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