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88 keys, two hands, and a whole lot of imagination. Mozart didn’t just write piano concertos—he redefined them. With his twelve great Viennese concertos (K. 449-503), Mozart made the genre more difficult, more diverse, and deepened the relationship between soloist and orchestra.
Howdy, howdy, howdy! I’m Solomon Reynolds, and this is: Saturday Morning Car Tunes! This morning…
When a 27-year-old Mozart moved to the big city of Vienna, he entered the busiest and most successful years of his life. Why? He wrote a dozen piano concertos that became the most important of their kind—masterpieces that defined the sound of classical music. Even this station revolves around the sound of a Mozart piano concerto.
He took the framework established by other composers and raised the level of difficulty. Here’s his Piano Concerto No. 15, which Mozart said would “make you sweat.”
Mozart wrote his piano concertos like opera arias, both in form and with melodies you could sing. He even taught this one, from his Piano Concerto No. 17, to his pet bird, Vogelstar.
Mozart made wind instruments—the flute, oboes, bassoons, and horns—just as important as the strings, giving them their own unique voices with interesting things to say. You can hear the piano talking with the winds in his Piano Concerto No. 19. In fact, Mozart gave the entire orchestra a bigger role in his concertos. Instead of just backing up the soloist, they interact with them—like the chorus in a Greek tragedy. Here’s No. 21.
Mozart’s piano concertos had a huge impact on later composers. Beethoven was so inspired by his D minor concerto that he wrote out his own cadenza—or piano solo—for it. Mozart’s music had become more complex, more expansive, and more challenging than ever before. His concertos were as finely crafted as symphonies, the greatest type of orchestral music. Some think he was pushing back against society or growing frustrated with Vienna’s music scene. His Piano Concerto No. 24 was among his biggest musical achievements. Sometimes, people are reminded of the French national anthem when listening to the Concerto No. 25. The Beatles used that melody in their song “All You Need Is Love.”
With the twelve major Viennese concertos, Mozart became the most important composer in Europe, shaping the Classical sound single-handedly… well, with both hands.
I’m Solomon Reynolds. I write and produce Saturday Morning Car Tunes with research assistant Carolina Correa and audio engineer Stephen Page, only on Classical California. Tune in—or out of your car—next Saturday morning!
