Description

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major

The Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major in A major is one of his most popular and frequently performed works.

The four movements are characterised by contrast: simple and clear, melancholy and insistent, powerful and playful, and a grand finale.

Mozart completed this work on March 2, 1786, and most likely played the first performance a few days later in Vienna. For the coronation, in 1781, of Austrian Emperor Joseph II and attendant celebrations, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymous Colloredo of Salzburg moved his entire court to Vienna. He summoned his most famous musical employee, the younger Mozart who’d been savoring the success of Idomeneo in Munich, an opera specially commissioned by the Elector of Bavaria. The reluctant Wolfgang Amade by then thoroughly detesting his pfennig-pinching employer, arrived in the Hapsburg capital on March 16. By June 8, he had managed to get dismissed from Colloredo’s service (with a boot in the backside), leaving him free to conquer Vienna, which he did with the new Emperor’s erratic help. For the next four years, he reigned as Vienna’s favorite composer of instrumental music. While he rode the crest, his music was both anticipated and appreciated. In response to public demand between 1782 and 1786, he wrote 14 glorious piano concertos — Nos. 11 through 24 — most of them for his own use. No. 23 was intended for the Lenten series of 1786, along with Nos. 22 and 24, the last ones before Figaro. While the dates of these concerts have been lost, we know that the A major was an immediate success, and has remained popular ever since, as much for wistfulness as for melodies verging on sublimity. In the company of a flute, two bassoons, two horns, and strings, a pair of clarinets lend the music a moody character.

Parts/Movements

1. Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Allegro assai

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