First Movement
Mozart was a prolific composer of opera, and this movement has a theatrical character to it where you can imagine different characters associated with the various motives and themes; an operatic scene without words. The opening minute or so feels like an overture before the solo instrument is introduced. There is a clear quaver - semiquaver triplet motive which is used extensively throughout the rest of the movement. There also features lots of call-and-response phrasing between the various instrument groups.
At many points in the movement, Mozart makes use of subtle dissonance, for example with the use of decoration like appogiaturas, which while hardly perceptible with the music at full tempo adds to the quality and colour of the music.
When the piano does arrive at around two and a half minutes into the piece, it is like it has used a side door rather than made a grand entrance. After only a few bars there is a pause sign over all instruments, indicating a cadenza - a place where the solo instrument (piano) is expected to perform an ornamental flourish. This passage is not written out, and the pianist is expected to improvise, ending with the notated trill which heralds the comeback of the strings with the opening theme.
When the piano plays 'shared' material - musical ideas already stated by the orchestra - it does so in a more ornamented and elaborate way. It also provides its own new theme, with the rest of the instruments providing a subservient role.
Around a minute after the arrival of the piano, the music suddenly shifts to a slower, more solemn G minor key. The beginning of this passage has a strikingly similar motive to the G minor symphony written three years later. Mozart again employs use of subtle dissonance here, the piano and strings having fleeting dissonances which create interest.
This dark, moody passage is short lived, giving way to G major. We never hear that minor passage again, at least not until the final movement of the concerto. A few bars into this brighter G major key, the woodwinds play sustained chords while the strings restate the opening thematic material, and on top of all this the piano is playing broken chord configurations, heavily chromaticised which causes as many as eight dissonances in every bar. These passing dissonances make the music sound more complex and more technically brilliant.
The central development takes on the gloomy minor character once again, starting with an understated piano melody which is a variation of a short motif heard near the start of the movement in the brass. This short development section makes its way back to sunnier climes with the recapitulation - the restatement of the original themes. Shortly before the end of the movement there is another brilliant and virtuosic cadenza from the piano. There is then an understated exit of the movement, as if the 'characters' have exhausted themselves and are sidling away off the stage.
Second Movement
This contrasting middle movement features a very famous theme, well known to even non-listeners of classical music. It opens with plucked bass strings with a velvety melody from the first violins, and a pulsating accompaniment from violas and second violins. Here the violins and viola are instructed to use mutes - 'Con Sordino'. After a short while the piano takes up the theme in a straightforward way, not elaborated, and all the strings take over pizzicato in the accompaniment At times the pianists right hand passes over the left, playing the melody in the bass.
The whole movement has a dreamy nocturnal feel, as if time is suspended. Although there is a very fragile texture, there is frequent use of subtle ornamentation creating momentary clashes of harmony such as appogiaturas.
Third Movement
The final movement of the concerto is a rondo, in that a main theme alternates with other themes, or digressions. Unlike the first movement, this time the piano doesn't sidle in but comes in with a flourish. We later hear three piano notes contained in the C triad which firmly establishes the key, and are almost identical in placing and effect as the G minor episode from the first movement that never came back.
Shortly after the above concludes, there is some interesting strings, woodwind and piano imitation. At the end of the middle section, Mozart reuses a quaver turn-like idea from the first movement serving to mark the conclusion of this section. For Mozart this is a standard closing device, but it inevitably recalls the first movement, creating further cohesiveness within the whole concerto. There is then a return to the main theme, featuring, much like the other parts of the movement, lots of delicate scale like passages from the piano, and ending with an exhilarating and triumphant semiquaver run. This movement, along with its complexities, is a bright antidote to the thoughtful and ethereal middle movement.
My Response
Again, for this piece I followed the score carefully whilst listening. On one hand, it was easier to follow than the sonata studied earlier, as the score features a piano to which I am well accustomed. On the other hand it was much more difficult, as the score would expand and contract depending on which instruments were playing at the time, this meant that a particular instrument's written part would move position on the page making following along in real time particularly difficult!
Something I enjoyed learning about during the study of this concerto was the cadenzas. Having not followed concerto scores before, I was unaware that some of the passages I had heard before were improvised, and thus different when the piece was played by a different performer.
Overall, the concerto had a similar feel to a symphony, obviously with much greater emphasis on a single instrument. It was interesting to see how the solo piano interacted with the rest of the orchestral instruments, and where said instruments played a subservient or more dominant role at various times in the piece. It was also interesting to see how Mozart recycled and reformed material from earlier in the movement, or from a different movement entirely.
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