Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K. 414 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K. 414 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Piano Concerto No. 12 is one of the three piano concertos Mozart would complete between 1782 and 1783 (the others being the concerto No. 11 and No. 13), and would be presented at the Lenten concerts of 1783 in Vienna. Theatres and Opera houses remained closed during Lent until after Easter, and so Mozart would conduct these concerts in unusual locations around Vienna.

In describing his concerto No. 11, 12 and 13 to his father, Mozart would say of the works that they were “a happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult; they are very brilliant to the ear, and natural, without being vapid. There are passages here and there from which connoisseurs alone can derive satisfaction; but these passages are written in such a way that the less discriminating cannot fail to be pleased, though without knowing why”.

Mozart included a musical reference to Johann Christian Bach’s overture to ‘La calamita de cuori (The Magnet of Hearts), an opera by Baldassare Galuppi. This is likely first due to J. C Bach (the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach) having mentored Mozart while he was in London. The second is that J.C Bach had died in January of 1782. During the composition of the piano concerto No. 12. Mozart remarked to his father of the death off J.C Bach “what a loss to the musical world!”.

This concerto is comprised of three movements:
I. Allegro 00:00
II. Andante 10:30
III. Allegretto 18:49