9th piano concerto (Mozart)

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The 9th Piano Concerto in E flat major “Jenamy” , often also called the Jeunehomme Concerto , KV 271, is a piano concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . In a different count, which only takes Mozart's pure piano concertos into account, it is the 4th concerto.

Emergence

The 9th Piano Concerto is the last and most important of Mozart's Salzburg Piano Concerts; the next were made in Vienna. The composition was written in 1777 for the piano virtuoso Louise Victoire Noverre Verh. Jenamy (1749 - September 5, 1812), the daughter of the dancer Jean-Georges Noverre, who was friends with Mozart . The Mozart biographers Théodore de Wyzewa and Georges de Saint-Foix assumed “Jeunehomme” to be the pianist's name, and so the work was often referred to as the “Jeunehomme Concerto” in the 20th century.

Jenamy's pianistic abilities must have been great, as the concert demands a high degree of virtuosity. Structurally, it is likely to have its only predecessor in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach . Some novelties, such as the use of the solo instrument in front of the entrance hall, can only be proven previously in Bach.

music

1st movement: Allegro

The beginning of the movement sees the unusual use of the solo piano in the midst of the orchestral exposition . The distinctive opening motif of the movement consists of an E flat major chord and the following ascending E flat major triad with triple sounding of the fifth degree. The piano joins in with an independent contribution in the second bar ; the theme is presented by both of them together before the orchestra formulates it. The solo piano only responds with an “entrance” after the theme has been introduced, as Mozart calls the prelude to the piano before the actual theme. The implementation is kept short and mainly uses the triad motif. In the following recapitulation , the distribution of tasks in the main theme is reversed: the piano takes over the triad motif and the orchestra answers. The solo cadenza is extremely virtuoso and works in terms of motifs. In this she already refers to the cadences of Beethoven . Mozart composed several cadenzas for the concert.

Structure of the 1st sentence
section Bars content Bars
Exposure 1-155 Subject I. 1-7
Topic II 26-33
execution 156-195
Recapitulation 196-281
Coda 282 – conclusion

2nd movement: Andantino

The Andantino is Mozart's first concert movement in a minor key. The movement begins with a sighing motif in the strings, then a dialogue develops between the first and second violins. The piano plays its solemn melody over the gentle foundation of the strings. The repetition of the main theme surprisingly ends in major. From this emerges the more confident but equally lyrical second theme. The development mainly processes the input commentary from the beginning of the main theme. This is followed by an extended solo cadenza that is directly integrated into the composition in terms of motifs. Two strong chords in minor end the movement.

3rd movement: Rondeau

The long rondo finale of the concert comprises 467 bars. It gives the pianist the opportunity to develop virtuoso like in none of the previous concerts. The movement begins directly with the pianist's rondo theme, which acts like a perpetual motion machine as the movement progresses . After the presentation of the topic, the orchestra picks up the idea and expands it. This extension in turn takes up the solo piano and formulates the idea together with the orchestra. The B-theme of the rondo represents a piano solo cadenza that demands a degree of virtuosity previously unknown to Mozart. The abbreviated return of the rondo theme follows.

The middle section consists of a minuet in the key of A flat major, which is rarely used by Mozart . The melody of the piano is accompanied by pizzicati of the strings. After a long, slow transition, the rondo theme returns in the piano. The orchestra starts immediately and plays a shortened version of the theme. The movement ends with two chords from piano and orchestra.

effect

Nothing is known about the time and place of the premiere. It is assumed that Mozart often played the concerto himself later, which was not the case for all works at the time, since it was often short-term, utility compositions. The 9th Piano Concerto is still one of his most popular, best-known and most played today. The musicologist Alfred Einstein called the work, for example, based on Beethoven , "Mozart's Eroica ". The pianist and Mozart interpreter Alfred Brendel even speaks of “one of the greatest wonders of the world” when it comes to this piano concerto.

Status

The 9th piano concerto represents a new quality of Mozart's piano concertos. It is a clear development compared to the previous works of the genre. On the one hand, various new structural abnormalities appear; for example, the insert of the solo instrument is pushed into the entrance hall . Mozart will take up this again in the 15th Piano Concerto KV 450 . It is also unusual for the soloist to intervene in the musical scene again after the cadenza. This only happens in the 27th piano concerto .

The depth of feeling in the second movement shows a new quality of Mozart's middle movements in this intensity. He points to the slow movements of the 14th and 15th piano concerto . The concerto is often cited as an example of Mozart's so-called "Sturm und Drang phase", primarily because of this second movement. Another predictive innovation in this concerto is the thematic relationship between the movements. There is a relationship between the second subject of the main clause and the respective main subjects of the other clauses. In this sense, the 9th Piano Concerto is groundbreaking. Its melodic beauty and freshness also make it one of Mozart's most popular piano concertos. At the end of 1777 he played it himself together with the concert KV 246 in Munich and Augsburg.

literature

  • Ulrich Konrad (Ed.), Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Piano Concerto in E flat major KV 271 (»Jenamy«) . Facsimile of the autograph and commentary, Laaber 2017 (= masterpieces of music in facsimile, volume 38).
  • Michael Lorenz : “Mademoiselle Jeunehomme.” To solve a Mozart riddle. In: Mozart Experiment Enlightenment. Essays for the Mozart exhibition 2006. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Da Ponte-Institut, Ostfildern 2006, pp. 423–429, ISBN 3-7757-1689-0 .
  • 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 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Continuing "Jeunehomme" Nonsense , Michael Lorenz, November 14, 2014