Piano Concerto No. 25 (Mozart)

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Piano Concerto in C major
No. 25
by
K
. 503
Composed1786 (1786)
MovementsThree (Allegro maestoso, Andante, Allegretto)
Scoring
  • Piano
  • orchestra

The Piano Concerto No. 25 in

23 original piano concertos
.

K. 503 is now widely recognized "by common consent" as "one of Mozart's greatest masterpieces in the concerto genre."[2] However, it had long been neglected in favor of Mozart's other "more brilliant" concertos, such as No. 21, K. 467. Though Mozart performed it on several occasions,[3] it was not performed again in Vienna until after his death, and it only gained acceptance in the standard repertoire in the later part of the twentieth century.[4] Mozart's pupil Johann Nepomuk Hummel valued it – it was one of seven of Mozart's concertos which he arranged for chamber music ensemble.[5]

Music

The concerto is scored for solo piano, flute, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns in C, two trumpets in C, timpani and strings. It is one of Mozart's longest concertos, with average performance durations of 29–33 minutes.

The concerto has the following three movements:

  1. Allegro maestoso, 4
    4
  2. Andante in F major, 3
    4
  3. Allegretto, 2
    2

While the concerto is frequently compared to the

development section. Beethoven references this concerto in his own Fourth Piano Concerto. In addition, the famous motif in the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony resembles one found in this concerto. Also, Mozart's 25th and Beethoven's 5th concerti have a strong march
-like theme in the first movement that is first played in minor and then soon appears gloriously in major.

The tranquil second movement is in sonata form, but lacks a development section. It extensively uses the winds.

The third movement is a sonata-rondo that opens with a gavotte theme from Mozart's opera Idomeneo. Girdlestone considers this movement to be very serious-minded. Like the first movement, it touches upon the minor; however, it ends assuredly and joyfully.

Critical reception

In 1798, music critic Johann Friedrich Rochlitz described K.503 as "the most magnificent and difficult of all [Mozart's] hitherto known concertos" and "[maybe] the most magnificent of all the concertos which have ever been written."[7]

According to Simon P. Keefe, K. 503 is now regarded "by common consent one of Mozart's greatest masterpieces in the concerto genre." It is often viewed as a "kindred spirit" or "the rival and the complement" of Mozart's great C minor piano concerto, K. 491, completed a few months prior.[8] Keefe mentions and quotes Donald Tovey, Cuthbert Girdlestone, and Alfred Einstein as among the musicologists who uphold K. 503 as exemplary.[9]

Notes

  1. ISBN 1135887764
    .
  2. ^ Keefe 2007, p. 58.
  3. ^ Mackie 2021, p. 225.
  4. ^ a b "Kennedy Center program notes: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503". Archived from the original on 2017-05-10. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
  5. ^ Setiawan, Irene Margarete (2019). Serving Two Masters: Hummel’s Arrangement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major, K. 503 (Ca. 1828) (Doctorial dissertation) (PDF). University of British Columbia. p. 1.
  6. ^ Steinberg 1998, p. 315.
  7. ^ Keefe 2007, p. 59
  8. ^ Keefe 2007, p. 58
  9. ^ Keefe 2007, p. 82 fn. 41

References

External links

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