Mozart:
- Piano Concertos Nos. 23 and 24
Performed by Andras Schiff, piano, with the Camerata Academica Salzburg, conducted by Sándor Végh
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 was probably written around the same time as his opera “The Marriage of Figaro” was premiered.
It is estimated that about twelve of Mozart’s twenty-seven piano concertos were composed during a two-year period from 1784 to 1786, when Mozart would have been between twenty-eight and thirty years old.
As with many of his piano concertos, it is a very positive-sounding work, nearly always trying to look on the bright side, even though the composer was constantly having major financial issues during that time.
Earlier, in 1778, Wolfgang Mozart and his mother visited Paris and Mozart gave concerts there; Mozart was 22 years old at that time. On July 3rd, 1778, Mozart’s mother died in Paris, and there are much more somber compositions where this horrible tragedy is preserved forever.
Here is Vladimir Horowitz, performing the Piano concerto #23 in a rehearsal:
And next, here is Mozart Piano Concerto No.20, K466 – third movement, with Andras Schiff as soloist and conductor:
http://youtu.be/BJdFx2MInoU
Tags: Andras Schiff, Mozart, Concerto #23, concerto #24