Mozart, and the indelicate words by Maria Theresa / Piano Concerto No 1

 
Following the custom of the time, the first four piano concertos Mozart wrote are arrangements for keyboard and orchestra of movements from sonatas by other composers. They were called "pastiches". The first foray into composing for keyboard and orchestra – in the "pastiche" mode, of course – was made by Mozart in the summer of 1767 when he was only eleven years old. The family was back in Salzburg after their second European tour, which lasted three years.

Five years earlier, they had made their first tour. They visited Vienna, and Wolfgang and his sister Nannerl, four years older, had the opportunity to play at Schönbrunn Palace before Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. The Empress greeted them effusively and presented them with the gala costumes in which the children were later portrayed in paintings that are now famous.

Wolfgang Amadeus, age seven,
wearing the finery given by Maria Theresa 

But time went by, and nine years later, Maria Theresa would have some indelicate words for the Mozart family. In 1771, Mozart was in Florence in the company of his father Leopold, obeying a commission for a short opera in two acts in celebration of the wedding of Archduke Ferdinand, governor of Lombardy. Ferdinand praised the work with a celebrated "bravissimo, maestro".Leopold was enthusiastic and tried to place his son in the archduke's service.
The Archduke consulted with his mother, Maria Theresa of Austria. Maria Theresa responded by advising against the engagement: "...if they [the Mozart] are in your service they will degrade it by going about the world like beggars".By this time, Mozart the beggar had added thirteen symphonies to his four piano concertos from his boyhood days.

Concerto No. 1, K 37, in F major
Compared to his later concertos (at least, from No. 6 onwards), the first four concertos appear as "light", even somewhat naive works. But let's remember that the composer is eleven years old and, perhaps, he is just practicing writing for piano and orchestra.

Movements
Of course, there are three, in the Vivaldi style: fast - slow - fast.
01:28 Allegro (based on the opening allegro of a sonata for violin and piano by H.F. Raupach)
07:35 Andante (of unknown provenance, some scholars believe it belongs to Mozart)
13:25 Allegro (based on the first movement of a sonata by L. Honauer)

The performance is by the great Russian maestro Sviatoslav Richter, accompanied by the Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Russian conductor Rudolf Barshai.