Yesterday evening, famed pianist Mitsuko Uchida performed as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra on an all-Mozart program consisting of two concertos and a symphony. Ms. Uchida conducted both concertos from the piano. .
The program opened with the Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K. 453 (1784). After having relocated from Salzburg to Vienna, Mozart gave a series of subscription concerts at which he played piano concertos he had composed for the occasion. He was at the time only recently married and badly in need of means to support himself and his wife. Still better known in Vienna as a pianist than a composer, Mozart used the concerts as a showcase for both his virtuosity and his musical writing. The No. 17, however, was written for a talented student, Barbara Ployer, who paid "handsomely" for the privilege. It turned out to be a great success and was only one of six to have been published during the composer's lifetime. At its premiere in the suburb of Döbling, where the soloist's father had hired an orchestra, Mozart himself later played the piano part on his Quintet in E-flat major for Piano and Winds, K. 452 and then joined his student on a performance of his Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448. Mozart had brought along as his guest the celebrated Italian composer Giovanni Paisiello and may it have been as much for the latter's benefit as that of his student that he worked so hard to make the evening a success.
The opening movement of the K. 453 is distinguished by a second theme that moves rapidly through several keys, an idea Beethoven later used in his own G major concerto. Since the concerto was written to be played by another, the first movement contains one of the few cadenzas Mozart took the trouble to write out, usually improvising them at the keyboard when he was himself the soloist. The second movement is noteworthy for the prominent part given the winds, an unusual innovation for that period. The third movement is a theme and variations, and one of the most often told stories of this work is Mozart's pet starling's ability to sing almost perfectly the simple theme.
The next work was the Symphony No. 34 in C major, K. 338 (1780) led by the orchestra's concertmaster William Preucil. This is a festive cheerful work, the last symphony Mozart wrote before leaving Salzburg for Vienna, and its good nature might have something to do with his impending departure from a position where he had never been happy. The opening movement, similar in style to an Italian overture, sets the mood for the rest of the piece; the middle movement, while marked andante di molto, contains a note that the music should be played more quickly; and the final movement, in 6/8 time, is as lively as one could wish. There is evidence that the work was originally to have been in four movements - Mozart began a minuet on the back page of the opening allegro and then tore out the remainder, if indeed he ever completed it. Critic Alfred Einstein conjectured that a stand alone minuet, K. 409, might be the missing movement but the instrumentation does not match (the K. 409 contains flutes while the K. 338 does not). It's more likely that Mozart felt the minuet, at least as he had envisioned it, would not fit in with the rest of the symphony's boisterous character and so decided to discard it. While enjoyable, this is not a major work. Listening to it, one has the sense Mozart was happily killing time until he was finally able to leave town.
After intermission, the program concluded with the Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503 (1786). This is the last of Mozart's masterful subscription concertos and its stately elegance - Mozart included both trumpets and timpani in the orchestration - epitomizes perfectly the Classical ethos. It begins with a long first movement in sonata form that is characterized by quick shifts from major to minor keys. The second movement andante is also in sonata form but lacks a development section. The final section, an allegreto, opens with ballet music adapted from Idomeneo and then quickly moves to a more introspective mood. (Unlike the K. 453, this was a work Mozart had written for his own use and so had not bothered to put on paper the cadenza he intended to play; Ms. Uchida therefore performed her own.) It was as though in this work the composer wished to show off, in the most stately fashion imaginable, everything he had learned of the concerto form.
Mozart's music, along with Schubert's, is Mitsuko Uchida's specialty and in her dual roles of pianist and conductor she displayed a profound understanding of the composer's work throughout her performance. She had already played this same program on Friday evening with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall and her sold out appearance yesterday evening at Carnegie Hall was a huge success with the appreciative audience.
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