The Piano Concerto No. 27 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 its ...
,
K. 595, is
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's last
piano concerto
A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpiec ...
; it was first performed early in 1791, the year of his death.
History
The manuscript is dated 5 January 1791. However,
Alan Tyson
Alan Walker Tyson, (27 October 1926 – 10 November 2000) was a Glasgow-born British musicologist who specialized in studies of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. He wrote the (deliberately concise) ''Thematic ca ...
's analysis of the paper on which Mozart composed the work indicated that Mozart used this paper between December 1788 and February 1789, which implies composition well before 1791.
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 lect ...
has written that the composition of the work dates from 1788.
By contrast,
Wolfgang Rehm has stated that Mozart composed this concerto in late 1790 and early 1791.
Cliff Eisen has discussed the controversy over the time of composition in his review of the published facsimile of the score.
Premiere
The concerto may have been first performed at a concert on 4 March 1791 in
Jahn's Hall
Jahn's Hall was a concert hall in late 18th century Vienna. It was the property of a restaurateur/caterer named Ignaz Jahn, and seated (according to Deutsch) "400 at the most".Deutsch 1965, 330 It is remembered as a performance venue for works by ...
by Mozart and the clarinetist
Joseph Beer.
[Deutsch 1965, 387] If so, this was Mozart's last appearance in a public concert,
as he fell ill in September 1791 and died on 5 December 1791. Another possibility is that it was premiered by Mozart's pupil
Barbara Ployer
Maria Anna Barbara or Babette Ployer (2 September 1765 – before April 1811) was an Austrian piano and composition pupil of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for whom he wrote two piano concertos in 1784, No. 14 KV. 449 and No. 17, KV. 453, which w ...
on the occasion of a public concert at the
Palais Auersperg in January 1791.
Dexter Edge Dexter Edge (born in Tacoma, Washington, 20 January 1953) is an American musicologist.
Academic career
Dexter Edge attended The Evergreen State College (BA, Interdisciplinary Arts). He studied music history at the University of Southern California ...
, "Mozart's Reception in Vienna 1787–1791", in ''Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Essays on his Life and his Music'', (Oxford, Clarendon 1996), p. 90
Music
The work is scored for
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 reedless ...
, two
oboes, 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 virtuo ...
s, two
horns, solo
piano and
strings, which makes it thinner than Mozart's other late concertos, all of which except for No. 23 have
trumpet and
timpani.
It has three
movements:
Although all three movements are in a
major key, minor keys are suggested, as is evident from the second
theme of the first movement (in the dominant minor), as well as the presence of a remote minor key in the early
development of that movement and of the tonic minor in the middle of the Larghetto.
Another interesting characteristic of the work is its rather strong thematic integration of the movements, which would become ever more important in the nineteenth century. The principal theme of the Larghetto, for instance, is revived as the second theme of the final movement (in measure 65). The principal theme for the finale was also used in Mozart's song "Sehnsucht nach dem Frühling" (also called "Komm, lieber Mai"), K. 596, which immediately follows this concerto in the
Köchel catalogue.
Mozart wrote down his
cadenza
In music, a cadenza (from it, cadenza, link=no , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvisation, improvised or written-out ornament (music), ornamental passage (music), passage played or sung by a solo (music), sol ...
s for the first and third movements.
Simon Keefe has discussed the concerto in detail, with emphasis on the distinctive character and experiments in style of the concerto compared to Mozart's other concerti in this genre.
References
Sources
*
Deutsch, Otto Erich (1965) ''Mozart: A Documentary Biography''. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
External links
*
*
BBC Discovering Music(browse for .ram file for discussion of this work)
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27
Compositions in B-flat major
1788 compositions
1791 compositions