The Piano Concerto No. 15 in
B major
B major (or the key of B) is a major scale based on B. The pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A are all part of the B major scale. Its key signature has five sharps. Its relative minor is G-sharp minor, its parallel minor is B minor, and ...
,
KV. 450 is a
concertante work for piano and orchestra by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
. The concerto is scored for solo
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
,
flute
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedles ...
(third movement only), two
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range.
...
s, two
bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuos ...
s, two
horns, and
strings.
History
Mozart composed the concerto for performance at a series of concerts at the Vienna venues of the Trattnerhof and the Burgtheater in the first quarter of 1784, where he was himself the soloist in March 1784.
In a letter to his father, Mozart compared this concerto with the
16th concerto in D:
"I consider them both to be concertos which make one sweat; but the B flat one beats the one in D for difficulty."
Many pianists consider this to be one of the most difficult of Mozart's piano concertos. The concerto is primarily difficult from its many quick scale patterns which must be played perfectly and also from its many fast chord patterns moving up and down. Beginning with this concerto, Mozart began to use the term "grand" to describe his concerto such as K. 450 which feature a prominent and required wind section for the ensemble.
Music
The concerto is in three
movements:
The first movement is in typical
sonata-allegro form
Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th c ...
. The middle movement consists of a
theme and two variations. The finale is (as usual for Mozart) a
sonata-rondo
Sonata rondo form is a musical form often used during the Classical music era. As the name implies, it is a blend of sonata and rondo forms.
Structure
Sonata and rondo forms
Rondo form involves the repeated use of a theme (sometimes calle ...
, although using a less-common ABACABA form. It is testimony to Mozart's greatness that although this movement is extremely difficult from a technical point of view, it never sounds like a 'showpiece' meant to display the performer's skills. Some of the demands made on the pianist include fast ascending-descending
arpeggio
A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves.
An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...
s, hand-crossing and voice highlighting in runs of
semiquavers
Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest.
Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together.
In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note (American) or semiquaver (British) is a note played for half the du ...
, wide jumps and towards the end a double-handed
tremolo where the soloist 'battles against' the orchestra. This movement is among the most challenging works which Mozart has ever written for the keyboard.
Simon Keefe
Simon Patrick Keefe (born 24 December 1968) is a musicologist, author, and Mozart expert. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, Boston University and Columbia University. After being awarded his PhD in 1997, he was appointed to a lectu ...
has noted contemporary comments from Mozart's era on how the woodwind writing in this concerto showed a "newly intricate and sophisticated" character compared to Mozart's prior keyboard concerti.
Elaine Sisman has postulated that Mozart modeled the slow movement on a theme-and-variations movement from the
Symphony No. 75 of
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have le ...
.
References
Sources
*Hutchings, Arthur, ''A Companion to Mozart's Piano Concertos'', Oxford University Press (original publication, 1948).
*
Steinberg, Michael, ''The Concerto: A Listener's Guide'', Oxford (1998, )
*
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
15
Compositions in B-flat major
1784 compositions