Mozart completed his Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491, on March 24, 1786. It projects a reflective, personal, and 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.
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 Allegretto is a variation movement in which the woodwinds continue to develop much of the material quite freely, apart from the strings. The virtuosic piano passages are a total delight!
Here is pianist Leif Ove Andsnes who will perform this amazing concerto:
