13th Piano Concerto (Mozart)

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The 13th Piano Concerto in C major, KV 415 , is a piano concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . In counting the pure piano concertos by Mozart, it is his 7th piano concerto.

Emergence

The concert was written together with the 11th piano concerto KV 413 and 12th piano concerto KV 414 in the winter of 1782/83. These are Mozart's first concerts that were written in Vienna . He wrote them for his own concert performances in Vienna. On December 28, 1782, he reported to his father about the newly created concerts: “The concerts are the middle thing between too difficult and too easy. They are very brilliant - pleasant on the ears - of course without falling into the void. Here and there even connoisseurs can get Satisfaction on their own - but in such a way - that those who are not in the know have to say satisfied without knowing why. ”These lines also make it clear that the concerts KV 413 to 415 were written for the performance and a commercial goal followed. The requirement was evidently to satisfy connoisseurs and non-connoisseurs with beautiful sound. In Concerto KV 415 this is achieved, among other things, through the enlarged orchestral apparatus compared to the two previous concerts. Trumpets and timpani give the concert a special shine. The composer offered copies of the three concerts for subscription in the Wiener Zeitung , but this did not lead to the desired financial success.

The conception of the work was again not easy for Mozart. As in the 12th Piano Concerto, there are also many sketches for this concert, which is unusual for Mozart's compositional work. For example, a C minor draft of the second movement was discarded by Mozart because he thought it might be too serious for the audience. Mozart could not separate himself from the minor idea and uses it as an adagio insert in the final rondo. This and the fact that the last movement once again closes piano with no audience effect shows that Mozart had to try here to combine artistic ideals with commercial interests.

The first performance took place in Mozart's concert on March 23, 1783 in the old Vienna Burgtheater .

To the music

occupation

Solo piano , 2 oboes , 2 bassoons , 2 horns , 2 trumpets , timpani and strings

The performance lasts approx. 25 minutes.

1st movement: Allegro

The main movement begins with a march-like theme from the orchestra. The timpani and trumpet will soon be added and give the event a majestic character. The main theme is divided into four sections and develops in brilliant sounds. The solo exposure then also brings the formulated second theme, which has a thoughtful and restrained style. In the implementation and reprise the main theme appears only in the orchestra, without the participation of soloists. The concept of the independence of the participants in the musical competition is taken to extremes here.

2nd movement: Andante

The Andante is one of the simplest and most harmless concert movements of Mozart. The emotional focus of the concert, which usually lies in the middle movements, has been shifted to the final movement here. The music has no great depth and is simply structured. The movement is the result of a rethink during the composing process. Mozart considered an originally conceived minor andante too serious to be offered to the Viennese audience at the planned concerts. The present movement is made up of three parts and deals with two song-like and calmly flowing themes in a simple manner.

3rd movement: Allegro

The final rondo is one of the more complicated Mozart movements. A two-time adagio insert in minor leads to a further theme. Mozart obviously had a lot to do with this Adagio theme, the style of which was originally intended to be the basis for the entire second movement. The solo piano introduces the main theme at the beginning of the movement. The first couplet continues the chorus theme in terms of content and does not leave the basic key of C major. The second couplet then represents the aforementioned adagio insert. In this way, the movement takes on an unexpected twist and represents the emotional climax of the work. A singular case in Mozart's final movements in the piano concertos. The return of the first couplets moves the events to G major and leads to the compressed implementation in which motifs of the refrain can be processed. This shows once again that Mozart freely linked sonata form and rondo form. The new Adagio insert then leads to a brief entry by the soloist in C minor, which leads to the last repetition of the refrain and leads the movement to a muffled end in piano .

Status

The piano concerto KV 415 is the largest and most important of the first Viennese concerts. It represents a preliminary stage to many of Mozart's later piano concertos. Thus the layout of the great concerto KV 503 is not only formally, but partly also melodically similar to this 13th piano concerto. An important change in the formal structure of the concerts takes place in the Vienna Concerts. The meaning and extent of the opening ritual of the main movements grows and it becomes clear that Mozart has a new concept in mind. The name of the orchestral exposure can now be applied to Mozart's concerts, which are thus increasingly developing into the classical basic form of the piano concerto. The enlarged orchestral apparatus, with trumpets and timpani (which are ad libitum here), does not become the rule in the later concerts and remains the exception. However, it should be noted that the oboes and bassoons in this concert are now a permanent part of the line-up and are no longer ad libitum . The path to the obligatory Accompagnement is about to be completed and will be clear from the 15th Piano Concerto KV 450 at the latest . The majestic basic rhythm of the concert stands for an enlarged structure of the concert compared to its predecessor concerts. What is also striking is the increasing freedom with which Mozart composes the rondo movements in his concerts. So he increasingly mixed sonata movement form with rondo form.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Christoph Wolff (Ed.): New Mozart Edition , Series V, Work Group 15, Volume 3. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1976, SX
    Deviating from this, Otto Erich gives     German in Mozart. Documents of his life , Bärenreiter, Kassel 1961 without indication of sources, the world premiere had already taken place on March 11, 1783 in the Aloisia Langes Academy ; also in the English edition: Otto Erich Deutsch, Eric Blom: Mozart, a documentary biography. Stanford University Press, 1965, p. 213 ( online in Google Book Search). This seems to be an obvious mistake. In the edition Mozart: Letters and Notes , Volume VI: Commentary, Bärenreiter, Kassel 1971, also co-edited by Otto Erich Deutsch , it says about the Academy of March 11, 1783: “The 'concert' that Mozart played was certainly the piano concerto in D KV 175 with the 'Rondeau' composed later instead of the original finale (...) KV 382, ​​which he had to play twice. "(P. 134f.)

literature

  • Peter Gülke : The concerts. In: Silke Leopold (Ed.): Mozart-Handbuch. Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel / Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-7618-2021-6 / ISBN 3-476-02077-0 , pp. 342-345.
  • Wulf Konold : Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C major, KV 415 (387b). In: ders. (Ed.): Lexicon Orchestermusik Klassik L – Z. Schott, Mainz 1987, ISBN 3-7957-8225-2 , pp. 316-318.
  • Arnold Werner-Jensen: Music leader Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Volume 1: Instrumental Music. Reclam, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-379-20022-0 .
  • Hansjürgen Schaefer: concert book orchestral music GO. VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978, ISBN 3-370-00036-9 .
  • Alfred Beaujean, Annette Retinski (eds.): Harenberg concert guide . Harenberg Kommunikation, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 3-611-00535-5 .
  • Marius Flothuis: Mozart's Piano Concertos (= Beck's series 2201). CH Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-41874-0 .

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