MOZART, W.A: Piano Concertos Nos. 23 and 24 (Jandó, Concentus Hungaricus, Antál) (1990) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Piano Concerto No.23 in A Major, K. 488
Piano Concerto No.24 in C Minor, K. 491

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 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 w rote 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of the eighteenth century also brought considerable changes in keyboard instruments, as the harpsichord was gradually superseded by the fortepiano or pianoforte, with its hammer action, an instrument capable of dynamic nuances impossible on the older instrument, while the hammer-action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 completed his Piano Concerto in A major, K. 488, on 2nd March 1786. Like its predecessor in E flat, K. 482, it was designed for use in a series of three subscription concerts that Mozart had arranged for part of the winter season at a time when he was busy with the composition of his first Italian opera for Vienna, Le nozze di Figaro - the first if we discount the abortive La finta semplice of 1768. The commission was a distinct honour for a German composer, since the re-established Italian opera was dominated by Italian composers, who might be supposed to have had more skill in the art. Mozart mentions the concerto, among others, in a letter to Sebastian Winter, a former servant in Leopold Mozart's employ, who had entered the service of Prince von Förstenberg in Donaueschingen as friseur some twenty years earlier, and now sought to acquire compositions by Mozart for his master. He adds, while seeking a permanent stipend from the prince in return for whatever compositions he requires, that if clarinets are not. available in Donaueschingen the clarinet parts of the A major Concerto may be played on violin and viola.

The strings open the concerto, echoed by the wind, and all lead forward to the string announcement of a second subject that has a hint, at least, of sadder things. This material is duly expanded by the soloist, but with less freedom than has often been the case in earlier concertos of this kind. The central development starts with a new theme, capped by the soloist and later varied and extended, before the recapitulation, with its cadenza by the composer.

The slow movement of the concerto, in F sharp minor, opens with the soloist and the principal theme, one imbued with melancholy. The wind introduces a more cheerful theme, to which the second clarinet adds a characteristic accompaniment, before the soloist takes up the same strain, before the return of the main theme of the movement. The final rondo is prodigal in its invention and energy, largely dispelling the sorrows hinted in the first movement and openly expressed in the second.

The second of the two piano concertos that Mozart wrote in a minor key, the Concerto in C minor, K. 491, was completed on 24th March 1786. On 7th April Mozart gave his last concert in the Burgtheater, the third of a series, including in the programme the new concerto. At the beginning of May his new opera Le nozze di Figaro was performed for the first time, while the previous month had brought a new one-act Singspiel, Der Schauspieldirektor; performed at the palace of Schönbrunn on 7th February together with the successful Salieri Italian comedy Prima la musica poi le parole.

The C minor Concerto is scored for clarinets and oboes, as well as flute, pairs of bassoons, horns, trumpets and drums, and strings. The work opens with the strings announcing an ominous theme, the inspiration for Beethoven's later C minor Piano Concerto, the chief substance of the orchestral exposition. The soloist introduces a new strain, before joining the orchestral statement of the principal theme, which is now developed. The movement continues in a mood that is seldom broken, even by the tranquillity of a second theme, later to be tragically transformed. The second movement, marked Larghetto on the autograph in a hand other than the composer's, is in the key of E flat major and intervening episodes are framed by the principal melody, declared at the outset by the soloist. The music moves soon into sadder key of C minor, led by the woodwind, brightened by the serenity of a later episode, before the final return of the opening. The final movement is in the form of a set of variations, the first transformation entrusted to the soloist, followed by the woodwind, to which the clarinets add their own special character. The eighth and final variation, introduced by the soloist, leads to the final section of the work, the minor key maintained to the very end. Naxos

MOZART, W.A: Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 18 (Jandó, Concentus Hungaricus, Antál) (1991) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Piano Concerto No.17 in G Major, K. 453
Piano Concerto No.18 in B Flat Major, K. 456

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 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.

In 1784 Mozart found himself much in demand in Vienna as a performer. His mornings, he explained to his father, by way of excuse for writing to him so infrequently, were taken up with pupils and nearly every evening with playing, and for his performances he was obliged to provide new music. The Piano Concerto in G major, K. 453, was the fourth of six written during the year, and bears the date 12th April in the index of his compositions that Mozart had begun to keep. It was written for his pupil Barbara von Ployer, who played it during a concert at her father's summer residence in June, an occasion to which Mozart had invited the composer Paisiello to hear both his pupil and this and other new compositions.

The concerto is scored for flute, with pairs of oboes, bassoons and horns and the usual strings. The opening orchestral exposition brings its own surprising shift of tonality before the entry of the soloist with the first subject and a movement that continues with occasional darkening of colour and with a miraculous interweaving of wind instruments with the rest of the orchestra to which they are no longer an optional addition. The C major slow movement, an Andante rather than an Adagio, as Mozart stresses in his letters home, opens with an orchestral statement of the principal theme, followed by brief contrapuntal interplay between the wind instruments, the soloist leading the theme into a darker mood. The concerto ends with a movement of which the principal theme was apparently echoed by Mozart's pet starling, transcribed into the notebook in which he was keeping his accounts and writing exercises in English, with the comment Das war schön! The theme, with all the simplicity of a folk-song, is followed by five variations and an extended coda. Original cadenzas survive for the first two movements.

Mozart completed his Piano Concerto in B fiat major, K. 456, on 30th September 1784, nearly six months after its immediate predecessor. In a year in which he confined his attention to instrumental music he had followed the G major Concerto, K. 453, with a violin sonata for the Mantuan Regina Strinasacchi, and two sets of keyboard variations. In September he caught a bad cold and became seriously ill, the result of exposure to the cold night air after the heat of the opera-house, where he had been attending a performance of a new opera by Paisiello. On 21st September Gonstanze gave birth to Mozart's second child, Karl Thomas, and a week later, at Michaelmas, the family moved house. The new concerto was written for the blind pianist Maria Theresia von Paradis, daughter of the imperial court secretary, apparently for her use during a stay in Paris, where, escorted by Salieri, she won success as a pianist, singer and composer.

The concerto is scored for flute, pairs of oboes, bassoons and horns, and strings. The customary orchestral exposition is followed by the soloist's entry with the first subject, expanded in music that was well suited to the touch, fluency and vividness attributed to Paradis by a Parisian critic. The G minor slow movement is in the form of a theme and variations, giving scope for delicate arpeggiated embellishments of the theme by the soloist, with wind instruments entrusted with the opening of a G major variation, before the minor key is restored and the movement proceeds to a close. The last movement is introduced by the soloist, who announces the principal theme of the rondo, with momentary touches of deeper drama and a curious and brief passage of syncopation, when the soloist breaks rhythm with the orchestra, before it resumes w hat is here a tempestuous course. Alternative cadenzas by Mozart for the first and last movements have been preserved. Naxos

MOZART, W.A : Piano Concertos Nos. 11 and 22 (Jandó, Concentus Hungaricus, Antál) (1991) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Piano Concerto No.22 in E Flat Major, K. 482
Piano Concerto No.11 in F Major, K. 413

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 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.

Mozart performed his Piano Concerto in E fiat major, K. 482, on 23rd December at the Burgtheater in Vienna as an entr'acte between the parts of Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf's oratorio Esther, directed by the court composer Antonio Salieri in the presence of the Emperor, Archduke Franz and Princess Elisabeth. The concerto was the second of two Advent concerts arranged by the Tonkünstler-Sozietät for its widows and orphans. This was presumably not the first performance, since the concerto seems to have been designed for a series of three subscription concerts Mozart had organised, and the preceding concertos at least had not been finished so early, a week before it was needed.

The E fiat Concerto is scored for clarinets instead of flute and pairs of bassoons, horns, trumpets and drums. The strings, as in the immediately preceding concertos, have divided violas. The full orchestra starts the work with a brief and emphatic figure, answered by a gently descending sequence played by bassoons and horns, to be echoed by clarinets and violins. The orchestral exposition is linked to the soloist's version of the principal theme by a seventeen bar solo introduction, after which the piano moves on to bravura scales and arpeggios that accompany and then develop the material, before the sinister much more placid second subject. The movement continues with much busy passage-work for the soloist and a subtly varied recapitulation.

Muted strings open the C minor Andante, a movement that had to be repeated at the concert on 23rd December. The soloist varies the extended principal theme, briefly accompanied by the strings, followed by an E fiat episode, scored for wind, and allowing due contrast between the upper register of the clarinet and the Alberti bass of its lower register. The soloist returns with a further variation of the principal theme, leading to a second episode in which flute and bassoon engage in a C major dialogue, after which a further variation of the main theme returns, leading to a coda. The darker mood of the Andante is dispelled by the final rondo, introduced by the soloist, accompanied by the strings, and varied by the introduction of an A flat Andantino, a minuet, played at first by clarinets and bassoons and echoed by the soloist, after which the rondo theme re-appears to lead the music to its conclusion.

Writing to his father in Salzburg 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 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 Concerto in F major, K. 413, cannot be precisely dated. It appears to have been unwritten on 28th December, when Mozart told his father that only one of the three concertos had been finished, but was probably completed soon after that letter, and may have been played at concerts early in January, possibly on 11th January, when Aloysia Lange, Mozart's sister-in-law, who had won Mozart's attentions in Mannheim, sang an aria he had written for her. Original cadenzas survive for the first two movements. Again scored for an accompaniment of oboes, horns and strings, the first movement opens with repeated chords from the whole orchestra, followed at once by a principal theme that must have given satisfaction to all, the soloist entering with another fragment of a theme, before proceeding to the first subject, which is then developed. The movement continues with a wealth of thematic invention. The B flat Larghetto offers that mixture of joy and sorrow that Mozart knew so well how to convey and is followed by a rondo, derived from a minuet theme, announced first by the orchestra. Naxos

MOZART, W.A : Piano Concertos Nos. 16 and 25 / Rondo, K. 386 (Jandó, Concentus Hungaricus, Antál) (1991) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Piano Concerto in D Major, K. 451
Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 503
Rondo in A Major, K. 386

The solo concerto had become, during the eighteenth century, an important vehide 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 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 Piano Concerto in C major, K. 503, is entered in Mozart's list of his compositions with the date 4th December 1786 and was performed the following day at one of the four Advent concerts arranged at the Casino belonging to Mozart's earlier landlord, the publisher Johann Thomas von Trattner, whose wife was one of his pupils. The Concerto was played by Mozart in his Leipzig concert in 1789 and by his young pupil Hummel in Dresden in the same year.

The concerto is scored for flute, pairs of oboes, bassoons. horns, trumpets and drums, with strings, and opens with a grand declamatory statement from the whole orchestra, suiting well the key of C major. The jubilation of the opening is belied by the immediate intrusion of the minor, an element that also adds a darker colour to a new theme, introduced by the strings. The soloist makes an at first hesitant appearance, growing in confidence and elaboration, before the orchestra breaks in with the first subject, now extended by the soloist, who is later to introduce a second solo subject in the key of E fiat, a natural move from C minor, but unexpected in a C major concerto. There are to be other surprises and elements of counterpoint that add weight to a musically substantial movement.

The F major Andante is again on a large scale, its principal material announced by the orchestra and answered by the soloist in a movement that is broadly in sonata form, with the briefest of central development sections. The opening of the final rondo is deceptively cheerful, soon acquiring a tinge of melancholy with references to the minor key. Here, as in the earlier movements, there is scope for considerable virtuosity from the soloist in music that encompasses a variety of moods before its triumphant ending.

In February 1784 Mozart began to keep a list of his compositions, the first entry in his catalogue the E fiat major Piano Concerto, K. 449, the autograph carrying the same date, 9th February. The Concerto in B fiat, K. 450, is entered as completed on 15th March and the Concerto in D major, K. 451, under 22nd March. K. 450, much admired at the time, calls for two bassoons, in addition to pairs of horns and oboes, with wind parts that could certainly not be omitted, and K. 451 demands similar forces, with a single flute, and two trumpets and drums. These works Mozart described as grand concertos. These concertos 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 Concerto in D major, with its fuller scoring, opens in a style that suits its instrumentation, proceeding to introduce the soloist in the grand manner. The work, symphonic in conception, is on a large scale and makes still further technical demands on the soloist, a tendency apparent in this group of concertos. The Andante, using the horns and single flute, oboe and bassoon, with the strings, offers a sinuous theme, the gentle sadness of the solo part interwoven with the orchestra. These feelings are dispelled in a masterly rondo that makes due obeisance to B minor in passing, before the more optimistic D major reasserts itself.

The Rondo in A Major was probably originally intended as a finale to the Concerto in A Major, K. 414. Naxos

MOZART, W.A : Piano Concertos Nos. 6, 8 and 19 (Jandó, Concentus Hungaricus, Antál) (1990) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Piano Concerto in F Major, K. 459
Piano Concerto in B Flat Major, K. 238
Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 246 (Lützow Concerto)

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 in 1779. 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 Piano Concerto in F major, K. 459, was completed on 11th December, 1784 and seems to have been designed for the composer's own use. In his own catalogue Mozart describes the work as scored also for trumpets and drums, in addition to flute, pairs of oboes, bassoons and horns, and strings, but trumpet and drum parts are lost, if they ever existed, for a work in a key that is not, for Mozart, a trumpet key. Mozart played the concerto at the concert he organised in Frankfurt for the coronation there of the new Emperor Leopold II on 15th October, 1790. This and the Concerto in D major, K. 537, played on the same occasion, have both been given the title Coronation Concerto, although English-speakers have preferred to bestow the title only on the later work.

The first movement of the concerto opens with a familiar rhythm, announced first by flute and strings, joined in immediate repetition by the other wind instruments. The same theme introduces the soloist, who then accompanies its repetition by oboe and bassoon. Through the central development of the material the characteristic dotted rhythm of the opening reappears in a movement that allows the soloist dramatic triplet passage work as a salient feature. The C major second movement is marked Allegretto, instead of the usual Andante, its principal theme, announced at length by the orchestra, capped by a shorter passage, at first in G minor, and after the repetition of the principal theme, in C minor. The soloist introduces the final movement, a modification of the customary rondo form, in which a contrapuntal element appears in contrast to much of the surrounding material, forming one of the most impressive of Mozart's concerto movements, foreshadowing something of what was to come.

The Concerto in B flat major, K. 238, was written in Salzburg in January 1776. In December 1774 Mozart had travelled to Munich with his father to prepare performances of a newly commissioned opera, La finta giardiniera, for the carnival season. The following March they returned to Salzburg. Something of Mozart's discontent in Salzburg is revealed in a letter written in September 1775 to the great Italian composer, theorist and teacher Padre Martini, in which he laments the lack of singers for the theatre, the restrictions imposed on church music by the reformist Archbishop and w hat he describes as the struggling existence of music.

In 1775 Mozart had written the two violin Concertone and a group of five violin concertos for Salzburg. The B flat Piano Concerto, which followed, shows traces of these concertos, not least in its increasing richness of invention. It was intended presumably for his own use or for that of his sister and formed part of his repertoire when he left Salzburg in September 1777 on his journey to Paris, when he is known to have played it in Munich, Augsburg and Mannheim. The concerto is scored for a pair of oboes, replaced by flutes in the slow movement, and a pair of horns, with the usual strings. The first movement, marked Allegro aperto, an instruction found in the A major Violin Concerto of December 1775, opens with the customary orchestral exposition, introducing the two themes that are later to be repeated and developed by the soloist, for whom Mozart's written cadenza is preserved. The slow movement, in E flat, otters a principal theme characteristic of the composer in its more poignant connotations, here only implied in passing. The concerto ends with a cheerful rondo introducing an episode that suggests more popular music, a counterpart of the Turkish intrusion into the finale of the A major Violin Concerto.

Mozart wrote his Concerto in C major, K. 246 in April 1776 for Countess Antonia von Lützow, a niece of the Archbishop of Salzburg and wife of the commandant of the castle of Hohensalzburg, a woman he later described as high and mighty. The Countess was probably a pupil of Leopold Mozart. Mozart made use of the concerto during his journey to Mannheim and Paris in 1777 and 1778 and played it himself in Munich in October 1777, including in his concert there two other concertos, K. 238 and K. 271. It seems he performed the same concertos as a group in Paris. Nevertheless the C major concerto served well enough as material for pupils and in Mannheim it was performed twice by Therese Pierron Serrarius, daughter of the Mannheim Privy Court Councillor, in whose house he was lodging. Mozart was well enough pleased with his pupil, "unsere Haus-Nymphe", but less happy with an attempt by the Abbé Vogler to sight-read the work, the first movement prestissimo, the second allegro and the rondeau prestississimo, with arbitrary changes in harmony and melody. The orchestra opens the concerto, which is scored for the usual oboes, horns and strings, with the customary declaration of the first theme, later taken up by the soloist, who adds a further theme before proceeding to the second subject. The F major Andante provides an opportunity for subtle interplay between soloist and orchestra, and the former leads the way into a final rondo, in which the principal theme has all the simple elegance of a minuet. Three sets of cadenzas survive for the first two movements, the first two, at least, designed for the use of earlier pupils, and the third no doubt for use in Vienna in 1782. Naxos

MOZART, W.A : Piano Concertos Nos. 5 and 26 / Rondo, K. 382 (Jandó, Concentus Hungaricus, M. Antál) (1991) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Piano Concerto in D Major, K. 537 (Coronation)
Piano Concerto in D Major, K. 175
Rondo in D Major, K. 382

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 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 in 1779. 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.

By 1788 Mozart's popularity as a performer had begun to wane in Vienna. The year before, the new opera Don Giovanni had been commissioned by the theatre in Prague, and was staged in Vienna in May 1788, but there was to be no new commission for Vienna until the 1790 season, when performances of Cosi fan tutte were curtailed by the death of the Emperor. The D major Piano Concerto, K. 537, was completed on 24th February, 1788, presumably with a view to a series of Lenten concerts, and we may suppose formed part of the programme for the Casino concerts in June which Mozart mentions in a letter to his fellow free-mason Michael Puchberg, from whom he was obliged to borrow money during the summer. On his journey to Berlin with Prince Lichnowsky in 1789 he played the concerto before the Elector of Saxony in Dresden, but the name by which the concerto has become known derives from its performance by Mozart on 15th October, 1790, in Frankfurt for the coronation in that city of the new Emperor Leopold II. The event aroused relatively little interest and earned him little money.

The D major Concerto is scored for an orchestra that includes trumpets and drums, as well as the customary flute, pairs of oboes, bassoons and horns, and strings. The orchestral exposition is opened by the strings with a theme that forms the substance of the soloist's own entry, leading through bravura scale passages to a second theme, further extended until the appearance of the second subject. The central development is based principally on a relatively insignificant figure, before the soloist leads to the return of the orchestra with the recapitulation.

The soloist introduces the A major slow movement, followed by the orchestra, without trumpets or drums, and proceeding to a central section in material of the greatest simplicity. This is followed by the final rondo, into which the soloist leads with another of those melodies that seem to have all the ingenuousness of Papageno. The movement is not without moments of seriousness, but in general lacks the substance of the concertos that immediately precede it in order of composition.

The Piano Concerto in D major, K. 175, is the first such concerto by Mozart to be based on original material, after the arrangements he had made in 1767 and 1772. He wrote the work out in Salzburg in December 1773. He had spent ten weeks until late September in Vienna, accompanied by his father, who had taken advantage of the Archbishop's absence from Salzburg to travel with his son. The visit did not produce its desired purpose, presumably a position at court, but had a clear influence on Mozart's developing style of composition, particularly in a set of six string quartets he w rote in Vienna, two of them with fugal finales, an occasional practice of Haydn. The new concerto, which remained a favourite, to be played in Mannheim in 1777 and in Vienna in 1782, with a new finale, the rondo variations, K. 382, is a work of complete maturity, scored for pairs of oboes and horns, with trumpets and drums, as well as the necessary strings. The Rondo of 1782 adds a flute to the band.

The first movement of the concerto opens with a bold statement of the first theme from the orchestra, elegantly concluded and leading to the violin introduction of the second theme, is offered music of consistent brilliance, which includes a written cadenza. The G major slow movement, gently lyrical, interweaves the piano with the orchestra, and is followed, in the original version, by a remarkable enough finale, which opens as if about to embark on a fugue. The contrapuntal element continues to be of importance as the movement continues, the cadenza - Mozart's own cadenza has not survived - introduced by a four part canon, as the string sections enter one after another in imitation. The D major Rondo later substituted for this very original finale is marked Allegretto grazioso and consists of a series of variations that make marginally greater demands on the soloist, if less on the audience. Scholars have suggested that Mozart had a particular instrument in mind when he w rote the D major concerto, in view of the relatively limited range of notes in the solo part, which seems deliberately to avoid the slightly wider known range of instruments current at the time. It seems probable that Mozart played the concerto during his visit to Munich in 1774. He certainly had the music with him. Naxos

MOZART, W.A : Piano Concertos Nos. 7, 10 and 15 (Jandó, Várjon, Concentus Hungaricus, Antál) (1991) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Piano Concerto in B Flat Major, K. 450
Piano Concerto in F Major, K. 242 ‘Lodron’
Piano Concerto in E Flat Major, K. 365

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 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.

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, 9 February. The Concerto in B flat, K. 450, is entered as completed on 15 March and the Concerto in D major, K. 451, under 22 March.

The B flat Concerto, K.450, shares its opening theme between wind instruments and strings, the soloist capping the orchestral exposition with a show of dexterity before proceeding to his own version of the principal theme and a solo part that makes use of the widest range of the keyboard. There is an E flat major slow movement which allows the soloist further opportunity for lyrical brilliance in variations on the theme, and a final rondo based on a cheerful principal theme.

The Concerto in F, K. 242, known sometimes as the Lodron Concerto, was written in February 1776 and designed for Countess Antonia Lodron and her daughters Aloisia and Josepha, with due allowance, in the original version, for the limited technique of the younger girl. Mozart later arranged the work for two pianos. It formed part of his repertoire on the journey to Paris and he played the second piano part himself in Augsburg, his father’s native city, in October 1777, when the Augsburg cathedral organist Johann Michael Demmler played the first part and the distinguished instrument-maker Andreas Stein the third. It was played in Mannheim in March 1778, two days before Mozart and his mother left for Paris, the performers being Rose Cannabich, daughter of the director of instrumental music in Mannheim, Aloisia Weber, the young singer on whom Mozart had at the time set his heart, and Therese Pierron Serrarious, daughter of the Mannheim Privy Court Councillor, in whose house Mozart was staying. The Lodrons were people of some importance in Salzburg. Countess Antonia Lodron, before her marriage Countess Arco, was the wife of the hereditary Court Marshal Count Ernst Lodron, and a woman about whom Leopold Mozart had his own reservations when he found himself inveigled into giving her daughters lessons.

The concerto is a work of considerable charm and even brilliance, in spite of the relatively limited circumstances of its composition, intended for three amateurs, rather than the very much more professional performers it had in Augsburg and, we must suppose, in Mannheim. Mozart shows his genius, as other composers have done, in writing within these restrictions of technique, reminding us, in the words of Goethe, that in der Beschränkung zeight sich erst der Meister. There is an elegant interplay between the three keyboard instruments and the work is scored, otherwise, for the usual orchestra, with pairs of oboes and horns. The strings are muted in the slow movement, and in the final rondo, in the speed of a minuet, the Countess and occasionally her eider daughter are allowed to shine in solitary prominence.

The E flat double concerto, K. 365 offers balanced and well-matched solo parts. There was no need to make any concession to the undoubted abilities either of Nannerl Mozart or of Josephine von Auernhammer, whatever view Mozart might have held of the physical attributes of the latter. As usual the appearance of the soloists is delayed until after an orchestral exposition, followed by the entry of the soloists on an E flat trill, after which they take it in turns to announce the principal theme again and to proceed to music in which they have the main share of themes to themselves.

The B flat slow movement touches on more sombre thoughts in a brief excursion into C minor, but a mood of graceful serenity prevails over any lurking sense of tragedy, for which the time had not yet come. The final rondo is introduced by the orchestra with the principal theme, which is followed by the soloists with different material. The re-appearance of the principal theme is followed by a section in C minor, after which the second piano leads the way back to the main theme. Further developments follow before the theme is re-introduced, ushering in a cadenza and the soloists’ repetition of the theme, before the concluding remarks of the orchestra. Naxos