Piano Concerto No. 9 (Mozart)

Piano Concerto in E-flat major
  • "Jeunehomme"
  • No. 9
by W. A. Mozart
Mozart in 1777, the year of the composition, painted in Bologna by an unknown artist
Key E-flat major
Catalogue K. 271
Composed 1777 (1777)
Movements Three (Allegro, Andantino, Rondo, Presto)
Scoring
  • Piano
  • orchestra

The Piano Concerto No. 9 "Jenamy" (often misspelled as "Jeunehomme") in E♭ major, K. 271, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was written in Salzburg in 1777, when Mozart was 21 years old.

Composition

Mozart completed the concerto in January 1777, nine months after his Piano Concerto No. 8 in C major and with few significant compositions in the intervening period.[1] He composed the work for Victoire Jenamy, the daughter of Jean-Georges Noverre and a proficient pianist.[2] Mozart performed the concerto at a private concert on 4 October 1777. Jenamy may have premiered the work earlier.[3]

Structure

The work is scored for solo piano, 2 oboes, 2 horns (in E♭), and strings.

It consists of three movements:

  1. Allegro, in E♭ major and common () time, ~10:00
  2. Andantino, in C minor and 3
    4     time, ~12:00
  3. Rondo (Presto), in E♭ major and cut () time, ~10:00

I. Allegro

The opening measures of the first movement. The lower stave is the orchestral part at the pitch played by the violins, oboes and horns; the violas, cellos and basses play an octave lower. The upper stave is the right hand of the piano part.

The first movement opens, unusually for the time, with interventions by the soloist, anticipating Beethoven's Fourth and Fifth Concertos. As Cuthbert Girdlestone (1964) notes, its departures from convention do not end with this early solo entrance but continue in the style of dialogue between piano and orchestra in the rest of the movement. Mozart wrote two cadenzas for this movement.

II. Andantino

The second movement is written in the relative minor key. In only five of Mozart's piano concertos is the second movement in a minor key (K. 41, K. 271, K. 456, K. 482, and K. 488. K. 41 is an arrangement). Mozart wrote two cadenzas for this movement.

III. Rondo (Presto)

The third movement which opens with the solo piano is in a rondo form on a large scale. It is interrupted, surprisingly, by a slow minuet section in the subdominant key of A♭ major (a procedure Mozart would repeat with his 22nd concerto, 1785, also in the key of E♭ major). The work ends in the original tempo.

Reception

The work is highly regarded by critics. Charles Rosen has called it "perhaps the first unequivocal masterpiece [of the] classical style."[4] Alfred Brendel has called it "one of the greatest wonders of the world."[5] Alfred Einstein dubbed it "Mozart's Eroica."[6] Cuthbert Girdlestone was not quite as effusive in his praise, however, noting that the slow movement, while a great leap forward for Mozart, was still somewhat limited and the work as a whole was not equal to the piano concertos from the composer's peak in Vienna from 1784 to 1787, nor equal to his best compositions overall.[7]

Name

The work has long been known as the Jeunehomme Concerto. Théodore de Wyzéwa and Georges de Saint-Foix claimed that Mozart wrote the piece for a French pianist 'Jeunehomme' visiting Salzburg. This name is however incorrect; in 2004 Michael Lorenz demonstrated that the name was actually Victoire Jenamy (1749–1812), a daughter of Jean-Georges Noverre, a dancer who was one of Mozart's friends.[8] Mozart had made Victoire Jenamy's acquaintance during his stay in Vienna in 1773.

Notes

  1. ↑ Girdlestone, p. 94
  2. ↑ Hewitt, Angela. "Piano Concerto No 9 in E flat major 'Jeunehomme', K271". Hyperion Records. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  3. ↑ Steinberg, p. 281
  4. ↑ Rosen 1997, 59
  5. ↑ "A Break From Romanticism With Some Mozart" by Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times, 20 April 2012
  6. ↑ "Mozart Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K. 271" by Ethan Allred, Chamber Music Northwest
  7. ↑ Girdlestone (1964)
  8. ↑ Michael Lorenz, "»Mademoiselle Jeunehomme« Zur Lösung eines Mozart-Rätsels", Mozart Experiment Aufklärung, (Essays for the Mozart Exhibition 2006) Da Ponte Institut, Vienna 2006, pp. 423–29.

Sources

  • Girdlestone, Cuthbert (1948). Mozart's Piano Concertos. London: Cassell. OCLC 247427085.
  • Rosen, Charles (1976). The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (Revised ed.). London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571049052.
  • Steinberg, Michael (1998). The Concerto: A Listener's Guide. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019802634X.
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