As you watch the video link at the end of this assignment of Mitsuko Uchida performing W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor for piano and orchestra, K. 466, consider how the work would have been performed in Mozart’s own time — with the composer himself at the piano. We have learned that music in the Baroque era was conducted from the harpsichord. Music in the Classical period was conducted by the concertmaster (first violin, first chair), although with the tendency of older traditions not to be given up entirely in the face of new once, Mozart very likely conducted this work from the keyboard, just as Ms. Uchida does in this video.
As you prepare this assignment, imagine yourself in 1785 Vienna seated in the audience next to Wolfgang’s father Leopold, who had come from Salzburg to visit his son. Below is a short excerpt from Neal Zaslaw’s book “The Compleat Mozart” on the concerto and the performance through a father’s eyes (although Leopold was not always so kind). Sections in square brackets [ ] are my own.
Neal Zaslaw, “The Compleat Mozart” excerpt
February 10, 1785.
On this day “…Leopold Mozart arrived [in Vienna] to spend a few weeks with his son and daughter-in-law. [Mozart had married Costanza Weber by this time.] He reported to his daughter Nannerl [who was back home in Salzburg]:
We arrived at one o’clock. . . . The copyist was still copying when we arrived [consider that the parts for the orchestra are still being copied only a few hours before the performance. Performers played from hand-copied scores more often than not during the Classical era. The luxury of published parts is not enjoyed until much later], and your brother did not even have time to play through the Rondo, as he had to supervise the copying. . . . On the same evening we drove to his first subscription concert [of six], at which a great many members of the aristocracy were present. [This comments tells us that Mozart must have been quite popular to draw such an illustrious crowd.] Each person pays a souverain d’or or three ducats [unit of money at the time] for these Lenten concerts. Your brother is giving them at the Mehlgrube [the name of the concert hall] and only pays half a souverain d’or each time for the hall. (There were more than 150 subscribers.) [Leopold’s statements about profit betray his concern about finances, one that extended through much of his life.] The concert was magnificent and the orchestra played splendidly. In addition to the symphonies, a female singer from the Italian theater sang two arias. Then we had (the) new and very fine concerto . . . . [K. 466] [These last comments remind us that a concert at this time in history was quite long. They would frequently begin with a movement from a symphony, move on to both vocal and instrumental chamber music selections and finally end with another large-scale work, in this case a piano concerto. Three hours or more was not unusual for the length of a concert.]
The orchestra musicians must have been outstanding and well acquainted with Mozart’s idiom to have satisfied his sophisticated father and the Viennese audience in a sightread performance of this subtle, difficult work [Recall Leopold’s comment that Mozart didn’t have time to run through the last movement (rondo).] Perhaps because of its wide range of affect, brooding chromaticism, and stormy outbursts, K. 466 – one of only two concertos Mozart composed in minor keys – was a favorite in the nineteenth century, even though its final seventy-five measures in D major represent a clear instance of an eighteenth-century lieto fine (happy ending), which nineteenth-century musicians found so hard to accept.
[The nineteenth-century audience would have expected a minor key ending in keeping with the general mood of the movement.] The young Beethoven had K. 466 in his repertory and wrote cadenzas for it, as did Mozart’s pianist-composer son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang. Mozart, however, did not leave any cadenzas himself. [This is not surprising in that Mozart wrote most of his piano concertos for his own public performance, so there was no need to write out a cadenza. He would have treated it as a Baroque performer would – an opportunity for improvisation. Many works, not only Mozart’s lacked written-out cadenzas. This was, in fact, the only designated opportunity for a performer to improvise, something that had been an essential part of Baroque performance throughout a work.]1
1Neal Zaslaw, ed. The Compleat Mozart (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1990), 131.
For your report, read the excerpt from Zaslaw’s book and the biography on Mitsuko Uchida (Links to an external site.). Though somewhat flowery at the beginning, this article provides the necessary information. Consider these two sources to be the program for the performance. Incorporate information from Uchida’s biography and the excerpt as you write an evaluation of the performance. Combine the sources with your own reactions to what you see and hear from the video. The report should be around 1000 words in length. One thing to note as you listen is the level of drama in the music: Mozart is already predicting in some ways the Romantic fervor of the next century.
Optional: If you wish, you can be especially creative with this report and set it as a conversation with Leopold Mozart, but that is not necessary to achieve a good score. If you do choose to use the conversation method, include both sides of the conversation, but be sure to address the required points above (biography, excerpt, and your evaluation).
W.A. Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 – Mitsuko Uchida, piano
