Piano Concerto No. 13 (Mozart)

Piano Concerto in C major
No. 13
by W. A. Mozart
Pianoforte by Johann Andreas Stein (Augsburg, 1775) – Berlin, Musikinstrumenten-Museum
Key	C major
Catalogue	K. 415
Composed	1782 (1782)–83
Movements	Three (Allegro vivace, Andante, Allegro)
Scoring	Piano orchestra

The Piano Concerto No. 13 in C major, K. 415 (387b) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1782–83. It is the third of the first three full concertos Mozart composed for his subscription concerts.

It consists of three movements:

1. Allegro, in C major and
2. Andante, in F major and ³
   ₄
3. Allegro, in C major and ⁶
   ₈

The average duration of performance of Concerte für das Pianoforte (vol. 2, no.13), is 23 minutes.

Instrumentation: solo – piano (or harpsichord); orchestra: 2 oboes, 2 bassoons + 2 horns, 2 trumpets + timpani + strings.

Mozart wrote this and the piano concertos nos. 12, K. 414, and 14, K. 449, for his subscription concerts, "either with a large orchestra with wind instruments or merely a quattro" [with string quartet].

Assessment and reception

This concerto has long had an ambiguous reputation. The first movement starts with a quiet theme, similar to that of the later C major Concerto No. 21, but introduced fugato. The orchestral introduction builds to an impressive tutti, but many writers, including Hutchings and Girdlestone, have considered that after the entry of the keyboard this early promise is somewhat dissipated. The keyboard part itself consists of passages that do not integrate well with the fugato treatment of the ritornellic material, and, as Hutchings comments, the result is that the "whole is less than the sum of the parts".

References

• Girdlestone, C. M. 1997. Mozart's piano concertos. Cassell, London. ISBN 0-304-30043-8
• Hutchings, A. A Companion to Mozart's Piano Concertos, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816708-3
• Mozart, W. A. Piano Concertos Nos. 11–16 in full score. Dover Publications, New York. ISBN 0-486-25468-2

External links

• Konzert in C KV 415 (387b): Score and critical report (in German) in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
• Piano Concerto No. 13: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project