Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20
Darkness, drama and powerful contrasts.
About the video
- Filmed 25 January 2024.
- The video is approximately 33 minutes.
With his Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart struck out in a new direction. For the first time, he allowed a minor key to dominate a piano concerto, and the orchestra’s restlessly pulsing opening immediately signals that this is something other than elegant entertainment. The music has a dramatic intensity and sharp contrasts that would later fascinate Beethoven, among others.
Mozart composed the concerto for one of his own highly successful concert evenings in Vienna. It was performed on 11 February 1785, with Mozart himself at the piano. His father Leopold, visiting from Salzburg, wrote enthusiastically about the concert and reported that the orchestral parts had been completed so late that his son had not even had time to play through the finale before the performance.
The dark and restless first movement is followed by a Romance that begins in a brighter, more lyrical vein, although its tranquillity is interrupted by a turbulent middle section. The finale returns to D minor and the dramatic energy of the opening movement. Only towards the end does a decisive change occur: the music turns to the major and the concerto reaches a bright and energetic conclusion.
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The music
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20
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Participants
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Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
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Simone Young conductor
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Lise de la Salle piano
