Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22
Exuberant music-making, shimmering woodwinds and beauty that demanded an encore.
About the video
- Filmed 14 October 2021.
- The video is approximately 34 minutes.
1785 was an intense and successful year for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna. He appeared frequently as a pianist and composed several of his great piano concertos. Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat major was completed in December, the same year as the celebrated concertos in D minor and C major.
Here Mozart expands the orchestra’s palette of sound by using clarinets in a piano concerto for the first time. The woodwinds as a whole are given a prominent role, often emerging as independent voices in the dialogue between piano and orchestra. The bright and expansive first movement is followed by an Andante in C minor, in which the mood deepens and darkens.
The finale begins with a lively rondo, but in the midst of its exuberant momentum, the music unexpectedly comes to a halt for a slow and songful Andantino cantabile, before the rondo returns. At an early performance of the concerto, the emotionally charged second movement made a particularly strong impression: the applause did not subside until Mozart had it played once again.
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The music
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22
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Participants
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Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
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Sakari Oramo conductor
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Angela Hewitt piano
