Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was an Austrian composer and is regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western classical music. Mozart was a prolific composer and wrote in many genres. He wrote 27 piano concertos, with 15 written between 1782-1786. The piano concertos were primarily for his own performances at concerts.
The Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488 is a concerto for piano and orchestra. The performance is approximately 26 minutes, and the concerto has three movements:
I. Allegro (fast, lively)
II. Adagio (slowly)
III. Allegro assai (very fast)
Maurizio Pollini plays Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23
I. Allegro
II. Adagio (11:14)
III. Allegro assai (18:30)
It was finished on March 2, 1786, around three weeks prior to the completion of his next piano concerto. This concerto is written for piano and an orchestra consisting of one flute, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings.
There are many characteristics of this piece that are from the classical period. For example, the contrast of mood: throughout the three movements there are countless mood changes because of the sonata and rondo forms and the use of minuet and trio. Also, the heavy use of the piano was popular in the classical period when it replaced the harpsichord that was mainly used in the Baroque period of 1600 to 1750.
In prior concertos, Mozart usually used oboes which produced darker colors. But in this concerto, he replaced the oboes with clarinets, which brought brighter colors, especially in the emotional, slow 2nd movement in the key of F-sharp minor. Unlike concertos K. 482 and K. 491, there are no trumpets and drums here.
Overall, this is a very beautiful and genius work. We love that the piece had the occasional hint of melancholy but was lost with the return of the more luminous theme that the movement originally began.
Thank you for reading! See you next time!