Born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austrian Empire; Died on December 5, 1791 in Vienna, Austria
Concerto No. 20 in D minor for Piano and Orchestra, K. 466
Allegro
Romanza
Rondo: Allegro assai
Composed: 1785
Estimated length: 28 minutes
First performance: February 11, 1785 in Vienna, Austria, with the composer conducting and leading the solo from the keyboard.
First Nashville Symphony performance: February 11, 1974, with Thor Johnson conducting at Ryman Auditorium with soloist Lili Kraus.
In 1781, Mozart decided to take a major (indeed, trailblazing) risk and became a freelance artist in Vienna, no longer dependent on aristocratic and church patronage for support. In his first years in the metropolis, he turned to the format of the piano concerto as an ideal vehicle to keep himself before the public. While presenting himself as a charismatic performer in the role of the soloist, Mozart was also able to showcase his latest ideas as a composer. In the process, he elevated the piano concerto into a substantial musical statement parallel to the fast-evolving symphony.
Beethoven, who followed a similar path as a pianist-composer when he moved to Vienna, anticipated the Romantics’ intense admiration for two concertos in particular: those in D minor (K. 466, from 1785) and C minor (K. 491, from the following year)—the only two piano concertos Mozart composed in minor keys. K. 466 belongs to a series of significant works from Mozart’s Viennese years that are anchored in the key of D minor. It seems to have carried demonic, terrifying associations for him, signaling the predatory Don Giovanni’s hellish fate in another Da Ponte opera or, in the opening of the unfinished Requiem, heralding death itself.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
Dramatic sensibilities dominate in the spacious opening Allegro. Darkly flashing, unstable syncopations in the strings set the concerto in motion. Characteristically for Mozart, there is a generosity of thematic ideas; at the same time, the movement is designed to maximize a sense of tension. When Emanuel Ax joins in, he will introduce a tune we have not yet heard, which then segues into a dialogue of symphonic richness between the soloist and orchestra as the opening material is reworked.
Mozart offers a respite from the first movement’s agitated pathos in the slow movement (which he calls a “Romanza”). Yet not even the serene melody of this eye-of-the-storm movement can provide entirely safe harbor: the turbulent emotions of the Allegro intrude in a minor-key middle section. Even if the pathos here is less volatile, it stands in marked contrast with the deceptively simple symmetries of the Romanza’s main theme. As usual with Mozart, even the surface beauty of the music opens to reveal more complex emotions beneath.
The soloist sets the finale in motion with a kinetic, upward-thrusting theme. A pause on its highest note before the music continues to hurtle forward is especially dramatic. Mozart introduces plenty of rhythmic variety through unexpected pauses, nervous punctuations, and imitative gestures. All of this reminds us of the first movement’s agitation and edgy pathos.
But a sudden transformation is in store: at the end of the soloist’s cadenza, the woodwinds sweep the shadows away. What had seemed a subsidiary theme now takes center stage to end the concerto in a newly confident mood in D major, unequivocally reinforced by the trumpet’s bright sound.
In addition to solo piano, scored for flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings
− Thomas May is the Nashville Symphony's program annotator.
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