Mozart completed his Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491, on March 24, 1786. It projects a reflective, personal, almost intimate quality.
Much of the originality of this concerto lies in the sonority and textures resulting from the expanded role of the wind instruments, which no longer simply double the strings but function structurally as “dramatic personas” in their own right.
The theme of the exposition is striking for its angularity. Following the orchestral exposition, the piano enters – unaccompanied – with new melodic material.
The recapitulation presents the themes of the exposition, but in a different order, with a coda to round out the movement.
The atmosphere of the Larghetto is, if not all sunlight, at least a relief from the pathos of the first movement. The formal architecture is a modified ABA form.
The Allegretto is a variation movement in which the woodwinds continue to delineate much of the material quite freely, apart from the strings. The virtuosic passages alternate between figurative and four-part contrapuntal writing.
Here is pianist Leif Ove Andsnes to play this music for you:
