17th piano concerto (Mozart)

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The 17th Piano Concerto in G major, KV 453 , is a piano concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . In the number of piano concertos composed purely by Mozart, it is his 11th concert.

Emergence

Like its two predecessors, the 17th Piano Concerto was written in Vienna in 1784 . Mozart wrote it like the 14th piano concerto for his student Barbara Ployer. She played the concert for the first time on June 10, 1784 in her parents' house in Döbling . The concert is as technically demanding as its predecessor, which shows that Ployer was a talented pianist.

music

1st movement: Allegro

The main movement begins with a march-like main theme in the violins, which is picked up by the orchestral tutti . The march character, which will clearly dominate in the following concerts KV 456 and KV 459 , appears rather moderate here. A long transition in minor leads to the dominant and the second theme. A restrained final group ends the long orchestral exposure . The solo piano then takes on both themes and adds a third theme of its own. The transition to the implementation is done with arpeggio -Mollakkorden. It is a passage that points to Franz Schubert in its harmony sequence and can therefore be considered the basis of romantic music. Almost every bar brings a new harmony, within twenty bars 13 keys are touched. This is followed by thematic elements that place this implementation between the fantasy and thematic implementation. The subsequent recapitulation is almost in accordance with the rules. It ends with a harmonious and dynamic fallacy , as it is used twice in the sentence. The dominant is followed by the lowered sixth degree, combined with a subitoforte of the piano. An unusually long final orchestral ritual follows a motif-based solo cadenza .

2nd movement: Andante

The movement is written in the sonata form, which is rare for middle movements in Mozart's concerts. The basic key of the movement is C major. The Andante begins with a solemn orchestral cantilena in which the woodwinds play a leading melodic role.

The solo exposure of the piano resolves dynamic contrasts, syncopated runs and a shift in harmony to G sharp major. The piano first introduces a new thought in G minor before moving on to the canonical second theme, which now becomes four-part. The implementation is first performed in 13 clocks after G-sharp minor before the recirculation to C major in only four clocks pianissimo is completed. This is followed by a modified recapitulation, which runs after the exposition, and, for the last time in a middle movement of a Mozart piano concerto, a solo cadenza.

3rd movement: Allegretto, Presto

The finale in G major represents a set of variations . The lively theme is presented in the orchestra and played around by the virtuoso solo piano in a first variation. The repetition of the variation brings new aspects. In this way, each variation receives new, written variations when it is repeated. The following third variation brings with it a changed rhythm. The solo piano picks up the melody again and plays around it. The fourth variation is a G minor section. The fifth brings quick, falling interjections from the orchestral tutti and a full-fingered piano part. In the second part of the movement, Mozart expanded the coda for the first time into an instrumental opera finale. It is introduced by a tightening of the tempo and accelerating horn chords. The theme of variation appears briefly twice, otherwise this part is thematically independent.

Status

The 17th piano concerto is the third concert in which Mozart established the great and new classical form that he had achieved in the piano concerto KV 450 . For example, the obbligato wind instruments are increasingly taking on solo tasks and the freedom from the old formal principles can be clearly felt. The 17th piano concerto is one of the concerts that point to the coming romantic era. ETA Hoffmann, for example, described a series of harmonies in the third movement that refers to Schubert as an “example of romantic music”. The large structure of the concert with long independent orchestral passages points to the symphonic piano concertos that emerged in the Romantic era as well as to Mozart's own, which begin at the latest with the piano concerto K. 466 .

This work is the last of Mozart's piano concertos in which the middle movement still requires a solo cadenza . The emotional and artistic meaning of the middle movements, usually Andante movements, will steadily increase in the upcoming concerts and will increasingly focus on expression and artistic expression rather than on virtuosity. This cadenza is already missing in the andante in the following 18th piano concerto K. 456 . The design of the third movement (with the exception of the third movement in the 24th piano concerto) is unique in Mozart's oeuvre: It is not a rondo , but a set of variations that runs regularly in five variations up to the coda . The movement ends with an instrumental version of the coda of an opera finale, which is reminiscent of Le nozze di Figaro .

literature

  • Hansjürgen Schaefer: concert book orchestral music GO. VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1978, ISBN 3-370-00036-9 .
  • Harenberg concert guide. Harenberg Kommunikation, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 3-611-00535-5 .
  • Marius Flothuis: Mozart's Piano Concertos. CH Beck Wissen, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-41874-0 .

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