Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major

Mozart’s piano concertos not only provide fascinating insights into his creative world, but also his supreme abilities as a keyboard virtuoso—after all, it was for his hands that these pieces were almost invariably originally intended. Such was Mozart’s prodigious pianistic skill that he began touring aged six, amazing all onlookers with his ability to extemporise freely on any given theme, and to play even the most intricate of pieces with a black cloth covering his hands. By 1786, when he composed his Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488, Mozart was the most famous pianist in Austria. Yet in order to keep the notoriously fickle Viennese happy, he knew he had to produce a surefire winner. Typically, he chose not to go for high-impact thrills (he omits trumpets and drums entirely), but a mellow outpouring of radiant melodic enchantment: apart from the customary string orchestra, the only instruments present are a flute and pairs of clarinets, bassoons and horns. Tellingly, No. 23 was one of a select group of five concertos (the others being Nos. 16-19) Mozart kept “for myself and a very small circle of music-lovers and connoisseurs”. The heavenly central “Adagio” is the only piece (out of many hundreds) he composed in the soulful key of F-sharp minor.