Program Notes Concerto No. 22 for Piano and Orchestra in E flat major, K. 482 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
B. January 27, 1756, Salzburg, Austria D. December 5, 1791, Vienna, Austria)
Mozart’s Piano Concerto in E flat major, K. 482 was premiered on December 23, 1785 at the Burgtheater in Vienna. It is scored for flute, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings (approximately 33 minutes).
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n 1781, the 25 year-old Mozart made a momentous decision. After serving for nine long, unhappy years as a court musician to the Archbishop of Salzburg (all the while looking in vain for a suitable position elsewhere), Mozart decided, against the wishes of his overbearing father, to give up this post and move to Vienna as a freelance musician — a most unusual move in those days. From that time until his death in 1791, Mozart made a living for his family by giving music lessons, playing concerts and recitals, selling works to publishers and writing operas for the stage. During the winter of 1785, Mozart, his wife Constanze and their son Karl lived at No. 846 Schulerstrasse in Vienna. Mozart’s father Leopold paid them a visit in February, writing to his daughter: “You may gather what a fine apartment your brother has from the fact that he pays 460 florins rent (about $230) per year.” While this was not a huge sum of money, it was certainly more than any member of the music-making Mozart family had been accustomed to spending. The composers’ new-found affluence could be attributed to the concerts of his music that he himself organized each year during the Lenten season. These were presented at the Mehlgrube, an old, low-rent building that got its name from the flour warehouse that was housed in its basement. Mozart averaged about 150 subscribers and took home about 550 florins for the series — enough to make the rent on his comfortable new lodgings. This was a happy time for Mozart. He was 29 and approaching the height of his powers; the Mehlgrube concerts allowed him a comfortable apartment and temporary relief from financial concerns; he had recently become a father; his own proud father was visiting, witnessing his son’s success; and, above all, the fickle Viennese were impressed enough by his genius to WWW.DSO.ORG
attend his concerts – at least for the time being. This happiness and contentment seems to have made its way into the Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K. 482, particularly in the opening Allegro. Two years earlier, Mozart had written to his father: “The concertos are a happy medium between too easy and too difficult. They are brilliant, pleasing to the ear, without of course falling into emptiness. Here and there are places which appeal exclusively to the connoisseurs, but it is so
done that the layman will be pleased too – without knowing why.” Like many of Mozart’s early E flat works, the first movement begins with a majestic statement of the tonic triad, followed by a quiet, answering phrase, which is here given first to the oboes and horns, and then to the solo clarinets, with the violins providing bass support. The center of gravity in this concerto is the slow movement, a series of variations with episodes on a mournful C minor melody.
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