Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major ("Jeunehomme"), K. 271 (1777)

3. Rondeau: Presto - Menuetto: Cantabile - Tempo primo (1st Cadenza: Mozart/Anda; 2nd Cadenza: Anda)

Géza Anda (Pianist & Conductor) performs with the Camerata Salzburg (Camerata Academica des Salzburger Mozarteums).

"In January 1777, the month in which Mozart celebrated his twenty‐ first birthday, he wrote a Concerto that is anything but a second replica of the first one (E-flat major, K. 271). He wanted to publish it together with the two preceding works in Paris (letter of 11 September 1778): 'As for my three concertos, the one written for Mlle Jeunehomme, the one for Countess Lützow, and the one in B-flat, I shall sell them to the man who engraved my sonatas, provided he pays cash for them.'

"But the thought of paying cash never occurred to the engraver, Sieber, who was just as good a businessman as he was a musician; and for that fact no doubt this very Concerto for Mlle Jeunehomme (or 'Jenomy,' as Mozart called her) was to blame. Customers who might have liked the two previous concertos would certainly have rejected this one. It is surprising and unique among Mozart's works. Nothing in the products of the year 1776 leads us to expect it, for the Divertimento K. 247, although it is a masterpiece in its own field, is nothing more than a joyous Final-Musik. This concerto, on the other hand, is one of Mozart's monumental works, those works in which he is entirely himself, seeking not to ingratiate himself with his public but rather to win them through originality and boldness. He never surpassed it. There are similar bold ventures, full of both youth and maturity, in the works of other great masters: the wedding panel by Titian known as 'Sacred and Profane Love,' Goethe's Werther, Beethoven's Eroica. This E-flat major Concerto is Mozart's 'Eroica.' It embodies not only a profound contrast, and accordingly a higher unity, among its three movements, but also the most intimate relation of soloist and orchestra; and the orchestra itself is treated with greater vitality and more finely wrought detail than before, in truly symphonic style. The middle movement, an Andantino, is a striking example. It is in C minor, the first minor movement in a Mozart concerto, and thus a forerunner of the C minor Andante of the Sinfonia Concertante of 1779, for violin and viola. The strings are muted, with a canon between Violins I and II. The solo does not repeat the tutti, but rather comments upon it in free singing style. The melody of the whole movement is so eloquent that at any moment it could break into genuine recitative. In the last measures, the mutes disappear, and restraint is cast off in favor of actual recitative. The first and last movements are fitting companions to this slow movement. In the building up of the very first theme, the orchestra and the soloist collaborate. The soloist is in command, in full and proud sovereignty, but, for the first time, he permits himself to accompany a member of the orchestra, the first oboe, in simple chords. What a contrast with the concertos of Johann Christian, in which the solo part does sometimes feature simple chords, while in the orchestra‐ nothing happens; for in these works the concerto ideal never goes beyond the conception of a solo with accompaniment. The inner agitation responsible for the creation of this concerto brought about a constant succession of surprises, both in the structure and in the smallest details; nothing is left, not even the cadenzas, to chance or routine. The greatest surprise is the interpolation of a real minuet, in A-flat, with four variations, in the midst of the brilliant virtuosity of the presto Finale. But this is no excursion into the field of the popular, as in the violin concertos. This minuet is serious, elegant, stately, and expressive, all at once; it reflects the deep agitation of the Andantino, which is still seeking appeasement. There is nowhere any straining for virtuosity; yet this Concerto makes higher demands, technically as well as otherwise, than its predecessors. One would like to know something more about Mlle Jeunehomme, who inspired Mozart to write such a work, but for the present she remains a legendary figure." - Alfred Einstein

Sculpture: The Sleep of Sorrow and the Dream of Joy, Raffaelo Monti

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