Mozart Piano Concerto K.491 1st movement

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Mozart completed this work in Vienna on March 24th, 1786. He was experiencing the peak of his creativity and was also working on many other major pieces like Le nozzed di Figaro, piano concertos K482 in E flat major and K 488 in A major. Concerto no.24 is very different from no.22 and no.23. The 2 piano concertos in major keys met the expectations of traditional concertos. The first movement of concerto no.24’s distinctiveness was balanced by the second movement’s simplicity (E flat major). The third movement is a variation in C minor. Mozart wrote 27 piano concertos, only 2 of them are in minor keys—no.20 in D minor and no.24 in C minor. However, no.20 ends with D major in the last movement, which tempered its tragic character. No.24 is the only piano concerto of Mozart that starts and ends in a minor key. This piano concerto has the biggest orchestra arrangement compare to all his other piano concertos. The orchestra consists of clarinets, oboes, strings, flute, horns, bassoons, trumpets and timpani. This is the only piano concerto that has both oboe and clarinet. It’s also the only piano concerto that have soloist playing with the orchestra after the cadenza. Typical first movement of a classical concerto will be presented in sonata form (sometimes the ritornello form will be combined). The concerto starts with an orchestral exposition or a ritornello and followed by a solo exposition. It’s possible that the two expositions start with different themes. The expositions will be followed by development and recapitulation. A solo cadenza starting on a V64 chord will appear before the closing passage of the orchestra. The first movement of the piano concerto no.24 starts with an opening ritornello of the orchestra.... ... middle of paper ... ...n 4 in the opening ritornello. Coda (m.609-623), its materials and texture is clearly from transition 15. It has broken chord passages in the solo part and chords in the orchestra part. Coda has a pedal note C throughout. The harmonic structure is: i-F minor: vii07-i= C minor: iv-vii07-i-vii043-i-vii06-i. It’s very rare for classical concertos to have soloist play with orchestra after the cadenza. The recapitulation doesn’t have solo exposition’s primary and closing themes but it still sounds fulfilling and complete to the audience. It is because that the structure of recapitulation is based on the form of opening ritornello (orchestral theme 1-theme2-theme1) encompassing the 2 themes of the secondary theme group, but in a reversed/symmetrical order (orchestral theme 1-secondry theme 2-secondary theme 1-orchestral theme 2-orchestral theme 1).

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