Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major

Playful, graceful and, above all, modest, this concerto was written in 1782 as one of a group of three designed to showcase Mozart’s performing skills before the Viennese public—who knew about him from the success of his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail but were less familiar with his prowess at the piano. And the piano itself would have been a relative novelty to many of them, attached as the Viennese still were to their harpsichords. In every way this piece was destined for a selling job, carefully pitched (as Mozart told his father) between being too difficult and too easy, and aiming to please both "connoisseurs" and the "less learned": a middle course it pursues effectively as well as flexibly, in that it was written to be done either with orchestra or as a chamber piece with just a string quartet. The three movements run fast–slow–fast, with a tribute quote in the central “Andante” from music by J. C. Bach, who had been a mentor to Mozart during his youthful visit to London, and a finale (“Rondeau”) whose heavier weight looks forward to the operatic sound world of Don Giovanni.