MOZART, W.A.: Piano Concertos Nos. 13 and 20 (Jandó, Concentus Hungaricus, A. Ligeti) (1990) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Piano Concerto No.20 in D Minor, K. 466
Piano Concerto No.13 in C Major, K. 415

The solo concerto had become, during the eighteenth century, an important vehicle for composer-performers, a form of music that had developed from the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, through his much admired sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, to provide a happy synthesis of solo and orchestral performance. Mozart wrote his first numbered piano concertos, arrangements derived from other composers, in 1767, undertaking further arrangements from Johann Christian Bach a few years later. His first attempt at writing a concerto, however, had been at the age of four or five, described by a friend of the family as a smudge of notes, although, his father claimed, very correctly composed. In Salzburg as an adolescent Mozart wrote half a dozen piano concertos, the last of these for two pianos after his return from Paris. The remaining seventeen piano concertos were written in Vienna, principally for his own use in the subscription concerts that he organised there during the last decade of his life. The second half of the eighteenth century also brought considerable changes in keyboard instruments, as the harpsichord was gradually superseded by the fortepiano or pianoforte, with its hammer action, an instrument capable of dynamic nuances impossible on the older instrument, while the hammer-action clavichord from which the piano developed had too little carrying power for public performance. The instruments Mozart had in Vienna, by the best contemporary makers, had a lighter touch than the modern piano, with action and leather-padded hammers that made greater delicacy of articulation possible, among other differences. They seem well suited to Mozart's own style of playing, by comparison with which the later virtuosity of Beethoven seemed to some contemporaries rough and harsh.

Mozart entered the Piano Concerto in D Minor, K. 466, in his new catalogue of compositions on 10th February, 1785. It received its first performance at the Mehlgrube in Vienna the following day in a concert at which the composer's father, the Salzburg Vice-Kapellmeister Leopold Mozart, was present.

Leopold Mozart sent his daughter a description of the first of his son's Lenten subscription concerts, remarking particularly on the fine new concerto that was performed, a work that the copyist was still writing out when he arrived, so that there had been no time to rehearse the final rondo. He found his son busy from morning to night with pupils, composing and concerts, and felt out of it, with so much activity round him. Nevertheless he was immensely gratified by Wolfgang's obvious success. The next day Haydn came to the apartment in Schulerstrasse and Mozart's second group of quartets dedicated to the older composer were performed, to Haydn's great admiration.

The D Minor Piano Concerto, the first of Mozart's piano concertos in a minor key, to be followed a year later by the C Minor Concerto, adds a new dimension of high seriousness to the form, a mood apparent in the dramatic orchestral opening, with its mounting tension as the wind instruments gradually join the strings. The concerto is scored for trumpets and drums, as well as the now usual flute, pairs of oboes, bassoons and horns, with strings, the violas divided. The soloist enters with a new theme, after an orchestral exposition that has announced the principal material of the movement, and later extends the second subject in a work in which the recurrent sombre mood of the opening is only momentarily lightened by reference to brighter tonalities, these too not without poignancy.

The slow movement, under the title Romance, is in the form of a rondo, in which the principal theme, announced first by the soloist, re-appears, framing intervening episodes. Its key of B Flat Major provides a gentle contrast to the first movement, with a dramatic return to the minor, G Minor, in the second episode. Trumpets and drums are, according to custom, omitted from the movement, but return for the final rondo, into which the soloist leads the way, again in the original key of D Minor. A triumphant D Major version of an earlier theme interrupts a repetition of the minor principal subject, after the cadenza, and brings the concerto to an end. Cadenzas were presumably improvised by Mozart, and not written out, as they would have been for his pupils or for his sister, and do not survive. Beethoven, who had narrowly been prevented by his mother's final illness from studying with Mozart in Vienna, provided cadenzas for the first and last movements.

Writing to his father in Salzburg three years earlier, on 28th December 1782, Mozart, full of hope and enthusiasm, describes the set of three piano concertos that he was to announce in January for his proposed subscription concerts, works that were to be a happy medium between the easy and the difficult, brilliant and pleasing, without being empty, with elements that would afford satisfaction not only to the knowledgeable, but provide pleasure to the less perceptive, although they would not know why. He was busy at the same time as a teacher and performer, while completing a piano arrangement of his German opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which had proved very successful when it had been staged at the Burgtheater in July. At the same time he had started work setting an ode on Gibraltar, written by a Jesuit, commissioned by a Hungarian lady, and never completed. On 15th January subscriptions were solicited in the Wiener Zeitung for the three concertos, with optional wind parts, allowing performance also with the accompaniment of only a string quartet. Money was slow in coming in, and in April Mozart was writing to the publisher Sieber in Paris offering the three concertos, which he claimed could be performed with full orchestra, the French preference, with oboes and horns, or simply with four-part string accompaniment. The concertos, K. 413 - 415, were published in 1785 by Artaria in Vienna.

The third concerto of the set, in C Major, written early in 1783, was first performed in the presence of the Emperor at a concert in the Burgtheater on 23rd March 1783 devoted entirely to the music of Mozart. The programme also included operatic and concert arias, one sung by Aloisia Lange, the Haffner Symphony, and the early D Major Piano Concerto, with Mozart as soloist. He played the C Major concerto again at a Burgtheater concert a week later, once more in the presence of the Emperor, these royal occasions allowing the addition of trumpets and drums and a pair of bassoons to the orchestra. The opening would hardly have met with approval in Paris, which prided itself on the premier coup d'archet, a phrase that Mozart found ridiculous enough. Instead the first violins enter alone, imitated by the second violins and then by violas, cellos and double basses. The movement has a larger element of counterpoint than in earlier concertos, and allows the soloist greater chances for display. Originally Mozart had contemplated a C Minor slow movement instead of the present F Major Andante, from which trumpets and drums are, according to general custom, omitted. The final rondo is introduced by the soloist, who follows the orchestral extension of the principal theme with an unexpected Adagio in C Minor, its profounder implications dispelled by the return of the rondo theme. The movement has a final section which brings surprising further development and a reappearance of the Adagio before the work comes to an end. Naxos

MOZART, W.A : Piano Concertos Nos. 12, 14 and 21 (Jandó, Concentus Hungaricus, A. Ligeti) (1991) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467
Piano Concerto No.12 in A Major, K. 414
Piano Concerto No.14 in E Flat Major, K. 449

The solo concerto had become, during the eighteenth century, an important vehicle for composer-performers, a form of music that had developed from the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, through his much admired sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, to provide a happy synthesis of solo and orchestral performance. Mozart wrote his first numbered piano concertos, arrangements derived from other composers, in 1767, undertaking further arrangements from Johann Christian Bach a few years later. His first attempt at writing a concerto, however, had been at the age of four or five, described by a friend of the family as a smudge of notes, although, his father claimed, very correctly composed. In Salzburg as an adolescent Mozart wrote half a dozen piano concertos, the last of these for two pianos after his return from Paris. The remaining seventeen piano concertos were written in Vienna, principally for his own use in the subscription concerts that he organised there during the last decade of his life.

The second half of the eighteenth century also brought considerable changes in keyboard instruments, as the harpsichord was gradually superseded by the fortepiano or pianoforte, with its hammer action, an instrument capable of dynamic nuances impossible on the older instrument, while the hammer-action clavichord from which the piano developed had too little carrying power for public performance. The instruments Mozart had in Vienna, by the best contemporary makers, had a lighter touch than the modern piano, with action and leather-padded hammers that made greater delicacy of articulation possible, among other differences. They seem weIl suited to Mozart's own style of playing, by comparison with which the later virtuosity of Beethoven seemed to some contemporaries rough and harsh.

Mozart's Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 467, was entered in his catalogue of compositions with the date 9th March, 1785, a month after his D Minor Concerto. Like its immediate predecessor it is scored for trumpets and drums, as well as flute, pairs of oboes, bassoons and horns, and strings, with divided violas. It was first performed by the composer at the fifth of his Lenten Mehlgrube concerts on 11th March, the day after a concert in the Burgtheater for which he had used his new fortepiano with an added pedal-board, an instrument that his father remarks is constantly being taken out of the house for concerts at the Mehlgrube or in the houses of the aristocracy.

The opening bars of the exposition, played by the strings, are answered, in military style, by the wind, and there is a second theme of less significance than a true second subject, which is reserved for the soloist's exposition. The soloist enters at first with an introduction and brief cadenza, leading to a trill, while the strings again play the first part of the principal theme, answered by the piano, which then proceeds to material of its own. An unexpected foretaste of the great G Minor Symphony from the soloist leads to the happier mood of the true second subject, echoed by the woodwind and followed by darker moments in the central development. The F Major slow movement has won recent fame, by its use in the film Elvira Madigan, but is, nevertheless, one of the most beautiful of Mozart's slow movements, moving in its apparent simplicity and lack of bravura but complex, in fact, in its harmonic pattern. Trumpets and drums return for the final rondo, its principal theme announced by the orchestra and repeated by the soloist. The movement provides a relaxation of mood, a carefully balanced and lighter conclusion to a concerto of much substance.

Writing to his father in Salzburg three years earlier, on 28th December 1782, Mozart, full of hope and enthusiasm, describes the set of three piano concertos that he was to announce in January for his proposed subscription concerts, works that were to be a happy medium between the easy and the difficult, brilliant and pleasing, without being empty, with elements that would afford satisfaction not only to the knowledgeable, but provide pleasure to the less perceptive, although they would not know why. He was busy at the same time as a teacher and performer, while completing a piano arrangement of his German opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which had proved very successful when it had been staged at the Burgtheater in July. At the same time he had started work setting an ode on Gibraltar, written by a Jesuit, commissioned by a Hungarian lady, and never completed. On 15th January subscriptions were solicited in the Wiener Zeitung for the three concertos, with optional wind parts, allowing performance also with the accompaniment of only a string quartet. Money was slow in coming in, and in April Mozart was writing to the publisher Sieber in Paris offering the three concertos, which he claimed could be performed with full orchestra, the French preference, with oboes and horns, or simply with four-part string accompaniment. The concertos, K.413 - 415, were published in 1785 by Artaria in Vienna.

The A Major Concerto, K. 414, was completed in the autumn of 1782. The date of its first performance is unknown, although it may have formed part of a concert given by Mozart and his pupil Josephine von Auernhammer on 3rd November. Two sets of cadenzas survive, the later versions probably from 1785. The first movement, characteristic of Mozart at the height of his powers, opens with the principal theme, which the soloist is later to repeat and develop. The slow movement opens with a theme borrowed, no doubt in tribute, from Johann Christian Bach, who had died in London earlier in the year. The D Major theme appears, during the movement, in unusually full harmony in the solo part, giving it an air of solemnity. The concerto ends with a rondo, its lively principal theme introduced by the first violins, but deferred in the solo part until other points have been made.

In February 1784 Mozart began to keep a list of his compositions, the first entry in his catalogue the E Flat Major Piano Concerto, K. 449, and the autograph carries the same date, 9th February. The concerto, like the first group of three written in Vienna, K. 413 - 415, allows an optional use of wind instruments, the usual two oboes and two horns and can be played with single strings, or, at least, only one viola. As Mozart remarked in a letter to his father, such a work would be possible at home in Salzburg, since wind-players did not often take part in meetings in Leopold Mozart's house.

The E Flat Concerto, K. 449, was probably performed for the first time at a concert Mozart gave at Trattner's rooms in Vienna on 17th March 1784, the first of a series of three such concerts for the last three Wednesdays of Lent. Both the E Flat Concerto and the G Major, K. 453, were intended for Mozart's pupil Barbara von Ployer, the daughter of the Salzburg agent in Vienna.

The three concertos written at this time, K. 449, K. 450 and K. 451, show a development in writing for the orchestra and in the demands made on the soloist, as well as changes in the treatment of the form, now handled with increased boldness of invention. The E Flat Concerto touches at once on the key of C Minor in its opening bars and has its orchestral second subject in the unusual key of the dominant, B Flat, instead of in the tonic E Flat, a procedure usually left for the soloist's exposition that follows. The slow movement, with its two alternating strains, explores strange keys, before the busy final rondo is introduced by the orchestra. Naxos

MOZART, W.A : Piano Concertos Nos. 9 and 27 (Jandó, Concentus Hungaricus, A. Ligeti) (1991) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Piano Concerto No.9 in E Flat Major, K. 271 (Jeunehomme Concerto)
Piano Concerto No.27 in B Flat Major, K. 595

The solo concerto had become, during the eighteenth century, an important vehicle for composer-performers, a form of music that had developed from !he work of Johann Sebastian Bach, through his much admired sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian, to provide a happy synthesis of solo and orchestral performance. Mozart w rote his first numbered piano concertos, arrangements derived from other composers, in 1767, undertaking further arrangements from Johann Christian Bach a few years later. His first attempt at writing a concerto, however, had been at the age of four or five, described by a friend of the family as a smudge of notes, although, his father claimed, very correctly composed. In Salzburg as an adolescent Mozart wrote half a dozen piano concertos, the last of these for two pianos after his return from Paris. The remaining seventeen piano concertos were written in Vienna, principally for his own use in the subscription concerts that he organised there during the last decade of his life.

The second half of the eighteenth century also brought considerable changes in keyboard instruments, as the harpsichord was gradually superseded by the fortepiano or pianoforte, with its hammer action, an instrument capable of dynamic nuances impossible on the older instrument, while the hammer-action clavichord from which the piano developed had too little carrying power for public performance. The instruments Mozart had in Vienna, by the best contemporary makers, had a lighter touch than the modern piano, with action and leather-padded hammers that made greater delicacy of articulation possible, among other differences. They seem well suited to Mozart's own style of playing, by comparison with which the later virtuosity of Beethoven seemed to some contemporaries rough and harsh.

The so-called Jeunehomme Concerto was written in Salzburg in January 1777 for the French virtuosa, Mademoiselle Jeunehomme, whose name appears in various misspellings in the Mozart family correspondence. She had visited Salzburg at the end of 1776, the occasion for the composition of the concerto, and Mozart was to renew the acquaintance in Paris in the following year. He made use of the concerto, a particularly brilliant work, himself, and played it in Munich and Paris and probably at his first public concert in Vienna in 1781. Three sets of cadenzas survive for the third movement and two for the first and second, the later ones written for Vienna.

There is a change in opening procedure in the E flat Concerto, with the soloist entering briefly in the second bar, instead of waiting until the end of the orchestral exposition. The appearance is a brief one, followed by a gentler theme from the orchestra, which, as usual, consists of strings with pairs of oboes and horns. The opening figure is heard again, after which the soloist enters with par1 of a new theme, before going on to develop the first subject that we have heard and offer its own version of the second theme. Elements of themes already heard form the substance of the central development, which is duly followed by a modified recapitulation, including a cadenza by the composer.

The second movement of the concerto, in C minor, reminds us of the essentially operatic vocal style of much of Mozart's music. Here, in the first theme, there are obvious affinities to operatic recitative, here tragic in cast, with all the deep melancholy that the choice of key implies. The mood changes into E flat major, to be replaced again by the prevailing feeling of sadness. This is quickly dispelled by the opening of the final rondo, although the movement is not without its moments of drama.

Concerto in B flat major, K. 595, completed on 5th January, 1791. Mozart played the concerto at a concer1 for the clarinet virtuoso Joseph Bähr on 4th March, given in a room belonging to the restaurateur Jahn. The year, never1heless, was a busy one and seemed likely to bring a turn for the better in Mozart's fortunes. Emanuel Schikaneder, an actor-manager well known for his Shakespearean performances, had devised a magic German opera, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), which was staged in the autumn at the suburban Theater an der Wieden, to be described by the critical diarist Count von Zinzendorf as "une farce incroyable". Whatever its dramatic peculiarities, the music was much enjoyed by the general public. There had been a commission also from Prague for an opera seria, La clemenza di Tito, to celebrate the coronation in that city of the Emperor Leopold II. The work was performed there in early September to the disgust of the Empress, Who had little time for such "porchería tedesca", and of Count von Zinzendorf, Who was bored. The same year Mozart began his Requiem, a work that he never finished, and wrote his Clarinet Concerto and Clarinet Quintet.

The B flat Piano Concerto is scored for an orchestra without trumpets and drums. After the orchestral exposition the soloist enters with the first subject and goes on to a passage in F minor, before the F major second subject emerges. There is a central development of inventive freedom before the recapitulation, with its composed cadenza. The soloist opens the Larghetto, followed by the orchestra, after which the piano adds an extension of the theme in music essentially in the form of a rondo, characterised by the repetition of the main theme between episodes. The last movement has a hunting theme, similar in character to the rondos that end Mozart's Horn Concertos and closely resembling his setting of Christian Adolf Overbeck's Sehnsucht nach dem Frühling: Komm, lieber Mai, und mache die Bäume wieder grün, K. 596, written on 14th January. The movement has contrasts of mood and key and a bravura element in the brilliant writing for the solo instrument, in music that is at times introspective and always deeply felt. The concerto is comparable to the greatest that Mozart w rote in times of greater optimism, a fitting conclusion to a remarkable series of works. Naxos