Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 9 Jenamy and 12 Violin Concerto No. 2, KV 211

When piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are programmed by international concert organisations, they are generally chosen from the works Mozart composed during his time in Vienna — he had moved to the imperial capital with all flags flying in 1781, directly after resigning from his position as concertmaster to the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. The Concerto in E flat major KV 271, dated January 1777, was the final piano concerto that Mozart composed in Salzburg and may be considered an exception here. It is regarded as an important pinnacle in Mozart’s works for piano, of a level that, according to the musicologist Alfred Einstein, he ‘probably achieved, but never surpassed,’ later in Vienna. This work was long but incorrectly known as the Jeunehomme Concerto, thanks to the misinterpretation of a Mozart letter, as Michael Lorenz was able to prove in 2004. In this letter, dated 11 September 1778, Mozart wrote from Paris: ‘I mean to sell my three concertos to B., the man who has engraved them, provided he gives me ready money; one is dedicated to Jenomy, another to Litzau, the third to B. The error suggested that Mozart had composed the concerto for a famous female pianist who had called him a ‘jeune homme’. ‘Jenomy’, however, was in fact a reference to Louise Victoire Jenamy, the daughter of the dancer Jean Georges Noverre, who was married to the wholesaler Joseph Jenamy. This also explains the rather surprising insertion of a minuet in the finale; the concerto itself is now familiarly known as the Jenamy concerto.
Mozart composed the Piano Concerto in A major KV 414 in Vienna. The Wiener Zeitung announced in its pages on 15 January 1783: ‘Herr Kapellmeister Mozart hereby informs the highly esteemed public of the
publication of three newly composed piano concertos. These three concertos, which can be performed both with a large orchestra with wind instruments and also a quattro, namely with two violins, one
viola and one cello, will not be available until the beginning of April, and will only be given — beautifully copied and reviewed by himself — to those who have subscribed to them.’ Only one of the three concertos, however, had been completed when this announcement appeared: the concerto in A major, KV 414 that had been composed in the autumn of 1782. This work, alongside the two concertos KV 413 and KV 415 composed in early 1783, is considered as a forerunner of Mozart’s great Viennese piano concertos.
Evren Ozel: ‘Mozart, perhaps more than with any other composer, allows you to sing through the piano. A particular simplicity imbues Mozart’s musical material, but at the same time it expresses an immense range of complex feelings and characters. The Concerto KV 271 highlights the power and courage of the orchestra and the soloist through its enormous range and virtuoso writing. The Concerto KV 414, on the other hand, is more carefree and allows the performers to explore a gentler and more tender side of Mozart.’
‘Concerto di Violino di Wolfgango Amadeo Mozart mp. à Salzburg li 14 di Giugno 1775’ is marked on the autograph of Mozart’s Violin Concerto in D major KV 211. Consisting of 28 sheets with 56 written pages
in a small landscape format, it — like many of Mozart’s autograph manuscripts — is now kept in the Prussian State Library in Berlin. This concerto was Mozart’s second for the violin as a solo instrument; the Concerto in B-flat major KV 207 had been composed two years earlier. Mozart then went on to compose his other three violin concertos in G major (KV 216), D major (KV 218) and A major (KV 219) in the short period from September to December 1775. The 19-year-old Mozart’s intense focus on the violin as a solo instrument can be traced back to his role at the time as concertmaster of the Salzburg court orchestra. Although influenced by Vivaldi’s violin concertos and French styles that he had absorbed on previous concert tours to Italy and France, Mozart’s personal musical language, with its characteristic cantabile, its song-like quality, is clearly already present in both KV 207 and KV 211. Jan Mráček: ‘Mozart has always been very close to my heart. His music is a synonym for simplicity within the strictness of the Classical style. The art of keeping his music simple and entertaining while remaining true to the style is the reason his solo concertos are played at practically every audition and competition. As my professor used to say: if you can play Mozart, you can play anything!’