Abby Wiegand

Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 12, K. 414 in A Major

A concerto is described as a work which highlights the capabilities of two

instrumental groups, working as a unit as well as individually. Mozart wrote

twenty-seven concertos for piano, with orchestral accompaniment. He developed these

compositions when the genre and the piano itself were both quite new, although there

was precedent for piano concertos set by notable composers such as Haydn. Mozart

wrote his first concerto at age eleven, and his last at thirty-four, just before he passed

away. As a young boy, his concertos were often derivative of his predecessors in the

field of composition, but he developed a personal style as he matured. He is praised

often for adding astounding variety to the conventional forms and styles he inherited

from the likes of Bach and Vivaldi.

Mozart’s twelfth piano concerto, written in A major, can be performed with only a

solo piano and a string quartet. Though written in 1782, it first debuted at Mozart’s 1783

Lenten concerts alongside two other Viennese concertos, K. 413 and K. 415. These

were among the first of Mozart’s compositions after his departure from the service of

Hieronymous Colloredo, the price-archbishop of Salzburg. He described this set as ​"...a

happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult… There are passages here

and there from which connoisseurs alone can derive satisfaction; but these passages

are written in such a way that the less discriminating cannot fail to be pleased, though
without knowing why” in a letter to his father (Dettmer 1). These words are often taken

as evidence that Mozart wrote for the untrained, common ear, though he received a

great deal of support from the aristocracy of the day.

Perhaps this is why K. 414 has been described as reminiscent of Tyrolean

music- that is, reminiscent of a primarily folk genre. The concerto appears simple at first

glance, but the transparency of the piece as a whole allows for no mistakes or

discrepancies in interpretation. Every miniscule direction by the composer must be fully

realized, and each movement of the pedal must be meticulously planned in order to be

sure that the transparency is not compromised.

​In the first movement of K. 414, there are six major musical subjects, two of

which appear for the first time in the development section. The melodies can be left

undeveloped because they are introduced into the piece as fully complex, complete

musical ideas. These subjects contrast one another, and some are separated by a twice

repeating pattern that comes close to being a motive in its own right- sixteenth notes in

the left hand supporting quarter-eighth patterns resembling musical sighs in the right

hand, which changes octaves and clefs throughout. The only main subjects that repeat

throughout the concerto are distinguished by transposition from the dominant to the

tonic, or simply by the addition of new ornamentation.

 Works Cited

Dettmer. “Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major,… | Details.” ​AllMusic​,

www.allmusic.com/composition/piano-concerto-no-12-in-a-major-k-414-k-385p-mc0002

357398​.

Gutmann, Peter ​Classical Notes - Classical Classics - Mozart: Piano Concerto #

20 in d minor​ www.classicalnotes.net/classics3/mozart466.html

Hutchings, A. ​A Companion to Mozart's Piano Concertos​, Oxford University

Press.

Schwarm, Betsy. “Mozart Piano Concertos.” ​Encyclopædia Britannica​,

Encyclopædia

Britannica, inc., 27 Dec. 2016, www.britannica.com/topic/Mozart-Piano-Concertos

Tovey, D. F. ​Essays in musical analysis​, volume 3, Concertos. Oxford University

Press.