Piano Concerto No. 14 in Eb, K. 449
For piano with 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings
Allegro vivace
Andantino
Allegro ma non troppo
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
Mozart wrote this concerto for his talented pupil Barbara von Ployer. It is dated February 9, 1784, and she performed this as well as another of his concertos later that same year. Mozart himself also performed it that year and reported to his father that it was a great success. He also told his father that, like several concertos from a few years earlier, this work could be performed without its wind instruments, in other words, with only string accompaniment. Whether he meant that the soloist could even be accompanied by just one string player to a part is unclear, but either way, the piece does have more of an intimate chamber music quality than his later concertos, and its wind parts are less fully integrated into the musical texture.
The piece as a whole is bright and clearly designed to please Mozart's Viennese public. The first movement is an energetic Allegro, and the Andantino that follows is a beautifully lyrical movement. But it is the third movement that is perhaps most memorable. It is a spirited rondo with a lighthearted theme that is heard in counterpoint, in variations, and that then switches in the end to a dancing 6/8 meter.
Boston Baroque Performances
Piano Concerto No. 14 in Eb, K. 449
April 29, 1978
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Soloist:
Martin Pearlman, fortepiano
April 28, 1978
Paine Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Soloist:
Martin Pearlman, fortepiano