Abby Wiegand
Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 12, K. 414 in A Major
A concerto is described as a work which highlights the capabilities of two
instrumental groups, working as a unit as well as individually. Mozart wrote
twenty-seven concertos for piano, with orchestral accompaniment. He developed these
compositions when the genre and the piano itself were both quite new, although there
was precedent for piano concertos set by notable composers such as Haydn. Mozart
wrote his first concerto at age eleven, and his last at thirty-four, just before he passed
away. As a young boy, his concertos were often derivative of his predecessors in the
field of composition, but he developed a personal style as he matured. He is praised
often for adding astounding variety to the conventional forms and styles he inherited
from the likes of Bach and Vivaldi.
Mozart’s twelfth piano concerto, written in A major, can be performed with only a
solo piano and a string quartet. Though written in 1782, it first debuted at Mozart’s 1783
Lenten concerts alongside two other Viennese concertos, K. 413 and K. 415. These
were among the first of Mozart’s compositions after his departure from the service of
Hieronymous Colloredo, the price-archbishop of Salzburg. He described this set as "...a
happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult… There are passages here
and there from which connoisseurs alone can derive satisfaction; but these passages
are written in such a way that the less discriminating cannot fail to be pleased, though
without knowing why” in a letter to his father (Dettmer 1). These words are often taken
as evidence that Mozart wrote for the untrained, common ear, though he received a
great deal of support from the aristocracy of the day.
Perhaps this is why K. 414 has been described as reminiscent of Tyrolean
music- that is, reminiscent of a primarily folk genre. The concerto appears simple at first
glance, but the transparency of the piece as a whole allows for no mistakes or
discrepancies in interpretation. Every miniscule direction by the composer must be fully
realized, and each movement of the pedal must be meticulously planned in order to be
sure that the transparency is not compromised.
In the first movement of K. 414, there are six major musical subjects, two of
which appear for the first time in the development section. The melodies can be left
undeveloped because they are introduced into the piece as fully complex, complete
musical ideas. These subjects contrast one another, and some are separated by a twice
repeating pattern that comes close to being a motive in its own right- sixteenth notes in
the left hand supporting quarter-eighth patterns resembling musical sighs in the right
hand, which changes octaves and clefs throughout. The only main subjects that repeat
throughout the concerto are distinguished by transposition from the dominant to the
tonic, or simply by the addition of new ornamentation.
Works Cited
Dettmer. “Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major,… | Details.” AllMusic,
www.allmusic.com/composition/piano-concerto-no-12-in-a-major-k-414-k-385p-mc0002
357398.
Gutmann, Peter Classical Notes - Classical Classics - Mozart: Piano Concerto #
20 in d minor www.classicalnotes.net/classics3/mozart466.html
Hutchings, A. A Companion to Mozart's Piano Concertos, Oxford University
Press.
Schwarm, Betsy. “Mozart Piano Concertos.” Encyclopædia Britannica,
Encyclopædia
Britannica, inc., 27 Dec. 2016, www.britannica.com/topic/Mozart-Piano-Concertos
Tovey, D. F. Essays in musical analysis, volume 3, Concertos. Oxford University
Press.
