Mozart, Piano Concerto No 8, in C major

As is known, Maria Anna Mozart, familiarly called Nannerl, was as much a pianist as her brother Wolfgang Amadeus. Many of the piano sonatas and some concertos of the child genius were made known to Nannerl before anyone else. She hastened to study them under the supervision and advice of her younger brother, who – sometimes from far away – encouraged her to do so in letters full of enthusiasm.

  

But Mozart was not always so enthusiastic with those who devoted themselves to the study of his works. In a letter to Salzburg sent from Mannheim, he mentions the renowned German professor Georg Vogler, whom he heard – in Wolfgang's words – "eagerly working his way through" his Concerto in C major for piano and orchestra.

Wolfgang himself used the concerto for didactic purposes for many years, and this explains, perhaps, why the work has three cadenzas, of varying difficulty, while they were usually left to the will and abilities of the performer.

Mozart in 1777. Portrait painted
in Bologna by an unknown artist.

It is time to remember that the piano concerto, as a musical form, was the last of the classical forms to be developed. And this happened almost entirely thanks to Mozart, who after settling in Vienna in 1782 produced 17 masterpieces that form the soul of the classical concerto repertoire.
His early efforts were influenced by concertos and sonatas by several other composers, including Johann Christian Bach (whom he met in London in 1764), adapting material from those composers, working on the allegro of one, or the adagio of another.
It was not until the end of 1773 that Mozart composed his first completely original concerto (in D major, K. 175). The one we are concerned with will see the light of day three years later.

Concerto in C major, K 246

This is the fourth of the entirely original concertos. It was composed in Salzburg, dated April 1776, a year after Mozart and his father Leopold returned from their third and last visit to Italy. It was composed for the young Countess Antonia Lützow, granddaughter of Mozart's employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg, and possibly a pupil of the father, Leopold.

It is in the usual three-movement sequence: fast - slow - fast. It is less brilliant than the other concertos composed around the same time, but the outer movements demand very nimble fingers, suggesting that the young countess was a skilled performer. The Andante prefigures the large slow movements that would characterize future Viennese concertos.

Movements:

00:00  Allegro aperto (a "brilliant" allegro)

07:36  Andante

17:28  Rondeau. Tempo di Menuetto

Mikhail Pletnev at the piano. accompanied by the Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Vladislav Lavrik.