Mozart's D Minor Piano Concerto

[Beyond Within]

This is probably the most beautiful piano concerto I have heard thus far.

For some reason it took me this long to finally hear it, but wow, so lyrical!

How hard is this to play, it doesn't sound too insane. Give me an outline of its difficulties, if you can.

[Peter]

It is a wonderful piece with superb cadenzas by Beethoven - as with all Mozart you need good scales and arpeggios and a good cantabile tone in the slow movement. Incidentally I think Beethoven's 4th is the most beautiful of piano concertos! Mozart's A major concerto K.488 is also very beautiful if you haven't discovered it yet.

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'Man know thyself'

[King Stephen]

Originally posted by Peter:
It is a wonderful piece with superb cadenzas by Beethoven - as with all Mozart you need good scales and arpeggios and a good cantabile tone in the slow movement. Incidentally I think Beethoven's 4th is the most beautiful of piano concertos! Mozart's A major concerto K.488 is also very beautiful if you haven't discovered it yet.

Peter,
I agree with you that Beethoven's 4th piano concert is the most beautiful of all piano concertos. I never, nerver get tired of listening to it. Just the way Beethoven composed it has me look upon it as almost autobiographical. I know it's not a good idea to write a program about the music but the open bars of the 1st movement sound like an awakening with joy abounding from them, the second movement being turmoil and third movement the over coming of adversity. Truly one of the all time masterpieces in the genre. By far,I believe, of all his concertos this is the most 'personal', and again my all time favorite.



[This message has been edited by King Stephen (edited 10-20-2004).]

[Joy]

I agree! Beethoven's 4th piano concerto is truly grand. Composed ca. 1805 and performed for the first time in public on December 2, 1808. I am going to a concert this weekend to hear this and am truly excited!
Speaking of Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor. A beauiful piece indeed! One of my favourites and the second movement is recognizable to many I'm sure. A most sublime and wonderful movement.
I also went to a concert last week where this Mozart's PC was performed. The pianist mentioned that Beethoven had written three cadenzas for this concerto and for this concert he performed the second one and also along with Beethoven's Piano Concerto #1, another wonderful concerto of his, this was truly a great concert indeed!!

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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Tony John Hearne]

One wonders what a Schubert Piano Concerto would have sounded like The imagination runs riot - there may have been few others to compare to it

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Love from London

[Vipercat]

Originally posted by Beyond Within:
This is probably the most beautiful piano concerto I have heard thus far.

For some reason it took me this long to finally hear it, but wow, so lyrical!

How hard is this to play, it doesn't sound too insane. Give me an outline of its difficulties, if you can.

I also LOVE this piece, my favourite of all Mozart concertos. It's not technically very hard, but to play with great beauty and lyricism isn't so easy, as is with all Mozart in general.

The scale/arpeggio runs must flow very smoothly, it must be rhythmically precise and lucid. And the piano must sing!!!

[urtextmeister]

I used to think the Mozart #24 in c minor was the ultimate deep Mozart, but I walked into a room the other day and saw someone playing the d minor on TV. I realized that I had never really appreciated how beautifully and poetic this piece is (sorry, I don't who was playing). Mozart could write things that are delightfully frivolous and fluffy and then turn a corner and write something as deep as anything I know of.

Interesting question about a Schubert piano concerto. He doesn't strike me as a concerto kind of guy.

[Beyond Within]

How proficient was Schubert at piano? Maybe the idea of a Schubert piano concerto doesnt sound quite right because history doesnt praise him for his piano technique.

I often wonder how great some of these famous composers were at piano. A lot of them wrote difficult piano music, but were they themselves virtuosos? Could Tchaikovsky play his own Piano Concerto??

These aren't rhetorical questions, by the way, I actually want to know!

[spaceray]

Wasn't Schubert's best playing on the violin ?He trained as a violinist and a singer.

[Haffner]

The deepest and most profound of all the Mozart piano conertos and concertos in genera; is his 27th. Such gravity and simplicity all at once! Perhaps his Clarinet concerto comes close but I would take the 27th any day.

The thing about the Mozart piano concertos is that they are all perfect. I have tickets to a concert in the winter entitled "One, Two, Three Pianos!" at which Mozart's 15th, 10th and 7th concertos will be performed. I am learning the 17th right now for a chance to play it with an orchestra!

[This message has been edited by Haffner (edited 10-22-2004).]

[Peter]

Originally posted by Beyond Within:
How proficient was Schubert at piano? Maybe the idea of a Schubert piano concerto doesnt sound quite right because history doesnt praise him for his piano technique.

I often wonder how great some of these famous composers were at piano. A lot of them wrote difficult piano music, but were they themselves virtuosos? Could Tchaikovsky play his own Piano Concerto??

These aren't rhetorical questions, by the way, I actually want to know!

Most composers wrote piano concertos for themselves to perform - Mozart, Beethoven, Hummel, Field, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev - so Tchaikovsky and Dvorak were exceptions.

A lot of great composers were virtuoso performers (to an extent this was expected of them, particularly in the 18th century) -we musn't forget that it was as a performer that Beethoven first came to attention in Vienna and there is no doubt that Schubert would have had far more success in his lifetime had he been a virtuoso.

However, I don't think it is necessarily essential to be a great performer to produce a great concerto (though from the technical viewpoint it helps) - I don't recall Dvorak being that hot on the 'cello, Brahms competing with Joachim for top notch on the violin or Mozart going great shakes on the basset-horn, bassoon, horn or flute!



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'Man know thyself'

[Peter]

Originally posted by Haffner:
The deepest and most profound of all the Mozart piano conertos and concertos in genera; is his 27th. Such gravity and simplicity all at once! Perhaps his Clarinet concerto comes close but I would take the 27th any day.

The thing about the Mozart piano concertos is that they are all perfect. I have tickets to a concert in the winter entitled "One, Two, Three Pianos!" at which Mozart's 15th, 10th and 7th concertos will be performed. I am learning the 17th right now for a chance to play it with an orchestra!

[This message has been edited by Haffner (edited 10-22-2004).]

For me the deepest is the C minor concerto K491 - I also love the C major K503, perhaps the greatest of them all. Good luck with the 17th!

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'Man know thyself'

[Haffner]

Originally posted by Peter:
For me the deepest is the C minor concerto K491 - I also love the C major K503, perhaps the greatest of them all. Good luck with the 17th!

Yes I also greatly admire the C minor. This is really Mozart's only grim concerto. Though the D minor has dark moments, it ends in the typical manner of any 18th century concerto; unlike the G minor symphony K. 550 and the C minor concerto, it provides the audience with a glimmer of hope.

[This message has been edited by Haffner (edited 10-23-2004).]

[urtextmeister]

Mozart #17. I believe I played that for a contest in grad school. I worked my ___ off on that competition. Lots of late nights and lots of coffee. It was a labor of love, however. Me and my late night trysts with Mozart.
When I played in the contest I was doing quite well until I heard a long tutti from the second piano. At the end of that I just stared at the accompanist.
It took me a long time to get back into it. Obviously I couldn't win with a major memory lapse.
My advice: practice a lot with your accompanist. Make sure you know the orchestra part as well as your own.

[Chris]

My favorite of Mozart is No. 23 (A major).

My favorite of Beethoven is No. 5.