'The Classical Style' reading group, week eleven

 

Fortepiano by Johann Andreas Stein (Augsburg, 1775) – Berlin Musical Instrument Museum.
Creative Commons photo by Gérard Janot. Source. 

V  MOZART 

 1. The Concerto 

By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger

On page 251 Rosen begins discussing K. 503, Concerto No. 25, my favorite. Joseph Kerman edited the Norton critical score of this concerto. I saw that book in a Tower Records in the 1990's, but I couldn't afford it. I later got the book from the library and loved it, and I have a special affection for that concerto.  

The footnote on page 255 deals with changes in pianos over time. When Mozart composed this concerto the piano had fewer keys than the standard 88 key piano of the last two hundred years. Pianists sometimes ask what they think Mozart would have wanted to hear on the longer keyboard. Would he have wanted to hear notes not possible to play on the keyboard for which he originally conceived the piece? 

These last eleven piano concertos, number 17 to 27, seem to me among the greatest creations of humanity. If you find yourself struggling with Rosen's analysis in this book, I recommend just putting the book aside and listening to the music. I think this marks my sixth time reading this book. It covers so much music, I get lost sometimes, but I feel grateful that I get to return to the music, and I feel grateful that you have chosen to join me on this voyage. 

In 1985 I went to London for the first time. Most nights I went to a play, but the theaters closed on Sundays, so I went to hear a concert with Andre Previn playing and conducting a Mozart concerto (I don't remember which one) and conducting the Brahms Requiem. I had read articles condemning pianists conducting from the keyboard, so I found myself most looking forward to the Brahms, but the Mozart performance ended up blowing me away. A few weeks later I found myself in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, on July 23 where I heard the original German version of Falco's song "Amadeus" in a nightclub called Wonderland. The next night in Munich I saw Berman's film of The Magic Flute.