Between the years 1782 and 1786, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart published and premiered in Vienna a staggering fifteen piano concertos. They were part of his public performances which, apart from the lessons to his pupils, were the natural way for a composer who did not have the favor of a court to generate income in those years. According to custom, the performances included the presentation of singers and other various numbers to give the Viennese public a varied program so that interest would not wane during the four hours that the concerts usually lasted. Of course, the total income had to be shared among all the artists.
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| Letter from Mozart to Puchberg, requesting a new loan. August 14, 1790 |
The bad times
In 1787 Austria started an unpopular war against the Ottoman Empire. The Viennese aristocracy decided then to concentrate their interest on protecting their property and shielding their children from conscription. Accordingly, the number of pupils and the interest in attending musical performances decreased notoriously. As a result, two years had to pass before Mozart wrote a new piano concerto, the one called "of the Coronation", in 1788, and the last of them, the Concerto in B flat, dated in his catalog on January 5, 1791, exactly eleven months before his death.
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| Constanze Mozart (1762 - 1842) |
At the end of 1789, with the laurels of The Marriage of Figaro (1786) and Don Giovanni (1787) somewhat withered, Wolfgang's financial situation was not of the best. When Constanze gave birth to a daughter in November of that year – who lived a mere six months – he had just two pupils, so he was once again forced to seek financial support from the incredibly generous Michael Puchberg, a prosperous Viennese merchant and fellow mason of Amadeus.
Not a few authors have ever sought help from a patron of the arts, but none have done so in a more compelling and heartbreakingly than Mozart.
In June 1788 Mozart wrote Puchberg:
"I still owe you eight ducats. Apart from the fact that at the moment I am not in a position to pay you back this sum, my confidence in you is so boundless that I dare to implore you to help me out with a hundred gulden until next week, when my concerts in the Casino are to begin."
Puchberg apparently sent the money. Then Mozart asked for an even bigger favor:
"If you have sufficient regard and friendship for me to assist me for a year or two with one or two thousand guldens, at a suitable rate of interest, you will help me enormously!" He made the feeble argument that this loan would enable him to "work with a mind more free from care and with a lighter heart and thus earn more."
The Mason merchant jealously guarded these letters, all, more or less, of the same tenor. Today they are worth far more than he ever lent to the Salzburg genius, who, by the way, was only able to pay off the debt on a couple of occasions.
Concerto No. 27 for piano and orchestra in B flat major, K. 595
In March 1791 Mozart gave one of his last public performances in Vienna. On that occasion, he gave the audience Concerto No. 27 for piano and orchestra.
Unlike the brilliance of the immediately preceding concerts, this is an intimate work, with a cozy character and without the slightest trace of spectacularity that the soloist or orchestra could make use of. At times mysterious, at others luminous or tragic, the work builds its unity on a brilliant mixture of intensity and elegance.
Movements:
Allegro On a very simple accompaniment lasting a single measure, the strings begin a beautiful cantabile melody punctuated by short interventions by the woodwind instruments. The sense of elegance and restraint is enhanced by an instrumentation that omits trumpets and tympani. At 2:55 the piano makes its entrance redrawing the initial motif.
Larghetto (14:25) Cataloged by some as "religious", a very simple theme is offered by the solo piano with the utmost innocence; it shows a little elaboration, only when Mozart considered it essential. A second idea, the most recognizable despite its brevity, in 15:17. It reappears at 18:57.
Allegro (21:08) Of calm candor, its first theme recalls the song that Mozart consecutively added to his catalog, the celebrated Sehnsucht nach dem Frühling (Longing for Spring, K. 596).
The rendition is by the brilliant Portuguese pianist Maria Joao Pires, accompanied by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by British conductor Trevor Pinnock.
After the concert, Maria Joao Pires offers us a couple of encores: Allegro and Andante from the sonata in D major for four hands (32:30), accompanied by the conductor who, of course, is also a pianist.
