Piano Concerto No. 5 (Mozart)

Piano Concerto No. 5 in D major, K. 175, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1773, at the age of 17. It is Mozart's first fully original piano concerto; his previous efforts were based on works by other composers.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for 2 oboes, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings and was the only concerto with trumpets and timpani until No. 10, K. 365. The second movement omits the trumpets and timpani.

Movements

The three movements of the concerto are listed as follows:

1. Allegro
2. Andante ma un poco adagio (in G major)
3. Rondo: Allegro

Unfolding with two whole notes, Mozart tackles a problem in the finale – how to introduce contrapuntal elements in a sonata form movement – that he was to revisit several more times. Mozart later composed a more tuneful rondo finale for this concerto, thinking it would be more popular with the Viennese audience than the original third movement.

This concerto was a favorite of Mozart's and is mentioned in many of his letters.^[1] He played the piece at concerts until the year of his death.

Notes

1. Hutchings (see references), p. 49-50.

References

• Hutchings, A. 1997. A Companion to Mozart's Piano Concertos, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816708-3

External links

• Concerto in D KV 175: Score and critical report (German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
• Piano Concerto No. 5: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project