Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major

Mozart commands attention with the short fanfare that launches his Violin Concerto No. 4’s lively orchestral introduction. Although the idea becomes a recurring motto of the first movement, its simplicity is balanced by a sophisticated answering phrase and the solo violinist’s virtuosity. There is joy to be had from the type of display on offer here. It is clever, for sure, but not for the sake of being clever; rather, Mozart presents the soloist as a welcome companion with the knack for telling stories that thrill and move in equal measure. He shows another side of the instrument’s character in the central “Andante cantabile”, in which the violin appears to sing of a world at ease with itself. The concerto, composed in Salzburg in October 1775, ends with a “Rondeau” built around a charming dance tune, marked “Andante grazioso”, unhurried and graceful, and its close companion, a playful “Allegro ma non troppo”. As he was to do so often in his later works, Mozart here subverts convention by inserting a country dance, complete with bagpipe-like drone on the solo fiddle’s G string, between the second and third repetition of the rondo theme’s slow and fast sections.