MOZART PIANO CONCERTOS
Nos 14 & 21, Aria “Ch’io mi scordi di te?”

Description

Piano Concerto No.14

This concerto was written for the exclusive use of his talented pupil, Barbara Ployer. Her father also commissioned Mozart to write a second concerto (No. 17) for which he supposedly was paid quite handsomely!

No. 14 was never published in his lifetime (most likely due to the exclusivity of performing rights), although Mozart did perform it several times. He distinguished this concerto from his later large-scale concertos by calling it “a concerto in an entirely different style and written more for a small than a large orchestra.”

Piano Concerto No. 21

This concerto was written just twenty-seven days after he finished composing the concerto No.20. An astonishing feat when you consider that during that period, Mozart not only taught private pupils, entertained his father and held a quartet party to play through with his father and Joseph Haydn some of the new quartets dedicated to Haydn. He also participated in perhaps another dozen public and private concerts!

Ch’io mi scordi di te?

This concert aria was written for the English soprano, Nancy Storace, who had recently premiered the role of Susanna in “The Marriage of Figaro”. The aria was performed at her final concert in Vienna and Mozart played the obbligato piano part himself.

Some have called this the greatest concert aria of all time. Have a listen and see if you agree!

W.A.MOZART: PIANO CONCERTOS

BIS
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