23rd Piano Concerto (Mozart)
The 23rd Piano Concerto in A major, KV 488 is a piano concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . According to a different count, which only counts the piano concertos exclusively by Mozart himself, this is the composer's 17th piano concerto.
Emergence
The 23rd piano concerto was completed on March 2, 1786. It was created parallel to work on the opera The Marriage of Figaro . Like its predecessors since the 15th Piano Concerto , it is one of the major Vienna concerts that Mozart composed for his own concert performances. In September 1786 Mozart sent the work along with a few other compositions to his friend Joseph Maria , Prince of Fürstenberg in Donaueschingen , so that he could perform the works.
To the music
1st movement: Allegro
The first movement begins with a subdued theme in the strings, from which the cheerful main idea develops. A second theme is more lyrical in nature and has a long trailer. The following solo exposure brings both themes back in accordance with the rules, but extends the first a little. The transition to implementation , on the other hand, is not entirely regular, as an almost independent third topic develops right at the beginning. Almost the entire development uses this idea with variations and interjections from the piano. At the end of the recapitulation , too , this thought now emerges, which shows that Mozart has long interpreted the formal principle of the recapitulation more freely and, as in several previous concerts, includes developments in the development. Unusually Mozart wrote out the solo cadenza in this concert . This proves the content-wise integrated function of the cadence in the overall concept of the movement. Nevertheless, Leopold Godowsky wrote an alternative cadence for this movement. The movement ends with a short closing ritornello by the orchestra. This ending seems almost irrelevant and ends with a small rotating figure in mezzopiano .
2nd movement: Adagio
The adagio in Sicilianotakt represents the emotional focus of the work. Mozart prescribes Adagio as a tempo designation, which goes against his own demand that “there should be andante in concertos and no adagio”.
The melody is presented by the solo piano. The key of F sharp minor, which is rare for Mozart, gives the movement a special sound. The orchestra joins the theme, then the orchestra and solo piano intone the main theme in common lament. A lighter, second thought in A major is then intoned by a trio of flute and two clarinets and doubled by the solo piano when it is answered. However, this turnaround is short-lived, as the first part is repeated. The topic appears here in a varied and expanded form. Before the coda follows, the last part of the main theme is varied again by piano and orchestra. So it is a free application of the three-part song form. The movement fades away with a few piano chords.
3rd movement: Allegro assai
The sudden, optimistic main theme of the final large rondo is a great contrast to the previous Adagio in terms of content. The refrain theme consists of two themes that follow one another. The first couplet brings a thought in E minor, which is quickly modulated into E major. It has a long trailer made up of several sequences . This is followed by a brief return to the refrain theme, which is surprisingly modulated in F sharp minor for the second couplet. This theme is also in two parts, with a second part in D major following the minor theme. The following repetition of the refrain brings only the second part of the theme and leads immediately to the repetition of the first couplet in A minor. Only then does the first part of the refrain theme repeat. The entire final part of the movement now works with this theme, which is also used in the coda .
As in the Piano Concerto KV 453, the final movement combines the world of the concert with a Buffocoda . This could be due to the fact that the concert was created at the same time as the wedding of Figaro .
Status
The 23rd Piano Concerto KV 488 is one of the piano concertos that are known as Mozart's symphonic concertos . It has a lot in common with the piano concertos KV 482 and KV 491 , as they are the only Mozart piano concertos in which clarinets are prescribed instead of oboes. These three concerts are therefore often referred to as clarinet concerts . The instrumentation, however, differs considerably from the two other concerts, as the work is orchestrated more like chamber music. Trumpets and timpani are missing, as in the earlier chamber music concerts of 1784.
The piano concerto KV 488 represents the epitome of the classical piano concerto and is one of Mozart's most famous works. The piano part is again more virtuoso than in the previous 22nd concert. The formal structure of the concert is quite progressive. In the first movement, the individual components of the sonata form take up about the same amount of space. Only the recapitulation is longer, as the progress made in the implementation is incorporated into it. This approach points to Beethoven's great piano concertos and the romantic works of this genre. There is a close thematic connection between the movements, as previously only to be found in the Piano Concerto K. 466 . This also points to the future of the piano concerto.
Overall, the piano concerto KV 488 is a prime example of Mozart's late and mature piano concerto. Precisely for this reason, it is likely to enjoy even greater popularity and popularity than most of the composer's other concerts.
literature
- Hansjürgen Schaefer: concert book orchestral music GO. VEB German publishing house for music, Leipzig 1978.
- Harenberg concert guide. Harenberg Kommunikation, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 3-611-00535-5 .
- Marius Flothuis: Mozart's Piano Concertos. CH Beck Wissen, Munich 1998.
Web links
- Concerto for piano and orchestra in A major, KV 488 : Score and critical report in the New Mozart Edition