Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 11 And 22

Description

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)Piano Concerto No.22 in E Flat Major, K. 482 Piano Concerto No.11 in F Major, K. 413The solo concerto had become, during the eighteenth century, animportant vehicle for composer-performers, a form of music that had developed from thework of Johann Sebastian Bach, through his much admired sons Carl Philipp Emanuel andJohann Christian, to provide a happy synthesis of solo and orchestral performance. Mozartw rote his first numbered piano concertos, arrangements derived from other composers, in1767, undertaking further arrangements from Johann Christian Bach a few years later. Hisfirst attempt at writing a concerto, however, had been at the age of four or five,described by a friend of the family as a smudge of notes, although, his father claimed,very correctly composed. In Salzburg as an adolescent Mozart wrote half a dozen pianoconcertos, the last of these for two pianos after his return from Paris. The remainingseventeen piano concertos were written in Vienna, principally for his own use in thesubscription concerts that he organised there during the last decade of his life.The second half of the eighteenth century also broughtconsiderable changes in keyboard instruments, as the harpsichord was gradually supersededby the fortepiano or pianoforte, with its hammer action, an instrument capable of dynamicnuances impossible on the older instrument, while the hammer-action clavichord from whichthe piano developed had too little carrying power for public performance. The instrumentsMozart had in Vienna, by the best contemporary makers, had a lighter touch than the modernpiano, with action and leather-padded hammers that made greater delicacy of articulationpossible, among other differences. They seem well suited to Mozart's own style of playing,by comparison with which the later virtuosity of Beethoven seemed to some contemporariesrough and harsh.Mozart performed his PianoConcerto in E fiat major, K. 482, on 23rd December at the Burgtheater in Viennaas an entr'acte between the parts of Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf's oratorio Esther, directed by the court composer AntonioSalieri in the presence of the Emperor, Archduke Franz and Princess Elisabeth. Theconcerto was the second of two Advent concerts arranged by the Tonk??nstler-Sozietat forits widows and orphans. This was presumably not the first performance, since the concertoseems to have been designed for a series of three subscription concerts Mozart hadorganised, and the preceding concertos at least had not been finished so early, a weekbefore it was needed.The E fiat Concertois scored for clarinets instead of flute and pairs of bassoons, horns, trumpets and drums.The strings, as in the immediately preceding concertos, have divided violas. The fullorchestra starts the work with a brief and emphatic figure, answered by a gentlydescending sequence played by bassoons and horns, to be echoed by clarinets and violins.The orchestral exposition is linked to the soloist's ve