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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No.21, KV 467

Further Information

• If one wished to learn everything there is to know about Mozart, but could only study a single type of composition, the best choice would be the piano concerto. In this one area, Mozart produced twenty-seven pieces, more piano concerti than any other important composer. Additionally, the concerti span his entire career. The first was written when he was only eleven; the last appeared less than a year before his death. Considering the entire range of these works shows how Mozart's style developed, and it shows how the Classical style as a whole came into being, for his earliest piano concerti are close adaptations of Baroque sonatas, whereas his final few works in the genre hint at the passion and power that would become popular at the turn of the century. As Mozart and his concerti matured, so did music history reach a new stage of development.

  Mozart's fascination with the piano concerto parallels Europe's interest in the piano itself. In the composer's early years, pianos were still regarded as new inventions. Harpsichords, which had been the stars of the Baroque era, were as yet highly regarded. Gradually, though, the greater power and versatility of the piano gave it precedence over its predecessor. A growing demand arose for compositions suited to this new keyboard instrument, and a fine pianist (Mozart was acclaimed as one of the best) could earn a good living playing concerti for appreciative audiences, especially if one could do so in Vienna, where appetites for new piano concerti seemed insatiable. For this reason, Mozart abandoned his native Salzburg. He settled in the imperial capital in the summer of 1781. In the decade that remained of his life, he would produce seventeen piano concerti, many of which now number among the masterpieces of the repertoire.

  It was in March of 1785 that Mozart composed his Concerto no. 21, completing it merely one month after his previous concerto. He would write four more in the next twenty months. Each of those concerti was written for Mozart himself to perform in concert in Vienna. Since he intended to act as soloist, he did not bother to write out the solo cadenzas, deciding instead to improvise them on the spot. Such a practice brought great verve and spontaneity to a performance, but unfortunately it has left us without the composer's own cadenzas. Since Mozart's time, pianists have had to compose their own cadenzas, or use those created by others. For any modern pianist to match the master's seemingly effortless style is always challenging, but it is particularly so in this case, for this concerto is among the most technically demanding of all Mozart's concerti. The composer's own father, Leopold Mozart, described the Concerto no. 21 as "astonishingly difficult." Today, it is less frequently remembered for its difficulty than for its lyrical second movement, which was prominently featured in the 1967 Swedish film, "Elvira Madigan."

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