Mozart: Piano Concerto in A Major, No. 23, K. 488

Piano Concerto in A Major, No. 23, K. 488

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)

The son of one of the great violin teachers of his time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart received early training as a string player, and appeared as a solo violinist right up to the end of his teens----his father declared that a great career lay ahead were he willing to put his mind
to it. But Mozart was more attracted to the piano, which began to absorb his attention as early as 1764, when he travelled to London with his sister and father. There he met Johann Sebastian Bach’s youngest son, Johann Christian, who would become a powerful influence upon his musical development.

J. C. Bach had settled in London, where he appeared in the earliest known concert of music for the new instrument, and began to compose piano concerti, works were to provide models for the nine year-old composer. Not surprisingly, Mozart’s earliest piano concerti included three (K. 107) which were based on solo keyboard works by J. C. Bach, together with four others (K 37, 39-41) which were artful arrangements of music by other prominent composers of the day. Later these apprentice works were followed by an astonishing string of 23 concerti written between December 1773 and September, 1791. (There was even another concerto for violin AND piano written in 1778 [K. 315f], bringing together both of Mozart’s performing instruments---alas, left unfinished.)

With his remarkable E-flat Concerto, K. 271 ( traditionally referred to as No. 9), Mozart established his mature approach to the piano concerto. In somewhat the same manner in which Haydn “invented” the symphony, Mozart could almost be said to have “invented” the piano concerto, setting in motion an expansive tradition which was taken up by Beethoven, and carried right down to the present day.) After composing a concerto for two pianos, there came an astonishing string of seventeen concerti composed in the space of ten years, a dozen of which were written in the space of THREE YEARS (1784-86.) By then Mozart had settled in Vienna, where (like Beethoven and Brahms after him) he built a reputation as a composer-pianist. Featuring himself as soloist in new concerti, Mozart organised a series of subscription concerts which became the talk of Vienna. But the public proved fickle, attention began to wane, and in the last five years of his life Mozart was to compose only two more piano concerti.

Like the poignant, valedictory Clarinet Concerto, (Mozart’s last instrumental composition), and the earlier Piano Concerto K. 414, the 23^rd Concerto is in A Major, a key which always Mozart always invests with great warmth and subtle coloration. Scored for an orchestra without horns, trumpets and timpani, replacing the oboes with clarinets, the concerto creates an atmosphere of remarkable intimacy in which the wind instruments become partners with the solo piano, weaving a chamber music texture of delicate transparency.

No fewer than seven of Mozart’s mature piano concerti open with a lively rhythmic pattern typical of Austrian military music---a notable exception being the brooding D Minor Concerto, K. 466. However this A Major Concerto could not be farther removed from march rhythms or tragic moods, opening without rhetorical gestures in an atmosphere of ease and lyrical tenderness. (This gentle opening seems reminiscent of another A Major work, the Clarinet Quintet.) As is common with Mozart, the opening orchestral RITORNELLO lays out a series of elements which are gathered into a conventional sonataform pattern upon the entry of the piano. Unlike some of Mozart’s more “symphonic” concertos, no thematic elements are withheld, to turn up unexpectedly later on. Rather there is a genial spreading out of basic ingredients which will take on deeper meanings as the musical structure unfolds. These include the easy-going principal subject, followed by a vigorous transitional theme in the orchestra, and a second subject in three short segments. The first carries forward the relaxed mood, the second is more rhythmic and pointed, the third a murmuring, more chromatically-inclined theme which gives way to brilliant passage-work in the solo instrument. The “transition” theme returns to form a link with a closing theme, again quiet and relaxed. The challenge for Mozart is to avoid a mood of blandness, having laid out so many understated, quiet thematic elements. This he manages through contrasts in texture, instrumentation, and shifts in harmony which give fascinating gradations of tonal colour, and moments when the music raises its voice, however briefly. There is no orchestral RITORNELLO rounding out the exposition, going directly into the development, which is largely given over to extended “chamber music” for the piano and winds, the harmony always gliding forward through a variety of colours and textures. The recapitulation is quite regular, an interesting change being that the piano takes the lead in the closing theme, which is expanded to accommodate a final virtuosic flourish before the final orchestral RITORNELLO. Following the CADENZA the orchestra has a parting glance at the “transition” theme to conclude the movement.

It is surprising to consider that the slow movement is the only music Mozart ever wrote in F-sharp minor, a key notable for its rich, dark intensity. The result is one of the most touching, inward-looking movements he ever composed. It is laid out as a simple three-part structure, with a pensive, SICILIANO-like principal theme played by the piano, utterly exposed and alone, then joined by the orchestra. The contrasting central episode is an innocent tune in A Major played by the winds in partnership with the piano, creating the mood of one of the composer’s woodwind serenades. Then the main theme returns as before, followed by a coda in which tiptoeing PIZZICATO strings form the background, the piano steadily moving into the distance with poignant, hesitating melodic gestures.

The finale, marked PRESTO, is a bubbling RONDO, rich in detail and contrasting textures. The piano initiates the principal (“A”) section which comprises a chain of five distinct, interlocking musical ideas, all but the first given over to the orchestra. A quieter melody in the piano (still in the home key of A Major), acts as a transition to the key of E, where a “B” section lays out four thematic elements, this time quite distinct from one another. (The first is mostly rippling arpeggios in the piano, the second slips into E Minor, the third takes on a declamatory tone, the piano becoming progressive more absorbed in pianistic display, the fourth being a skipping up-the-scale-and-down tune of saucy folk-like character heard against a quiet PIZZICATO accompaniment.) Before we know it the A theme (first part) swings back, only to stomp off into F-sharp minor for an “Episode” (or “C,” if one is keeping track), in which bursts of keyboard temperament are juxtaposed with lilting commentary from the winds. In a carefree twist there comes ANOTHER “episode” (“D”?), this time in D Major, with the piano alternately accompanying the winds, and taking the lead, supported by the strings. Throughout there is no let-up in the breathless chase, going on at some length before gliding back to the tonic key----but not to the primary (“A”) theme, rather the TRANSITION melody (in A Major). This leads to “B,” but without the first of the four segments, reprising the other three much as before. The up-and-down-the-scale figure brings back the missing “A” theme (the one which started the movement going in the first place), now returning in triumph. The first three elements (out of five) are heard again, but suddenly Mozart (always one to mix-and-match) chooses to slip over for an affectionate farewell to the up-and-down-the-scale tune. In the nick of time all is put right: while the piano rollicks about for the last time, the little-noticed final bits of the “A” section (Nos. 4 & 5) join in the fun, and the work sails home in high spirits.