Piano Concerto in C, K.467

Mozart’s creative inspiration was flowing so freely in the mid-1780s - when, among other astonishing things, he wrote no fewer than twelve of his greatest piano concertos - that he could do no wrong. If he had a problem it was not so much where the next idea would come from as how to discipline the supply of high-quality material which presented itself to him. The dilemma would have been particularly acute in the Piano Concerto in C major, K.467. In this radiant counterpart to its darkly dramatic predecessor in D minor, K.466, spontaneity was the first priority, but at the same time its enterprising spirit and its melodic abundance had to be contained within a conventional form.

The solution he found in the first movement is both ingenious and witty. The opening march tune, quietly introduced by unison strings, sounds like one of those themes - concise, crisp in articulation, clear in outline - designed to keep a wayward soloist under control and to hold a construction together. Sure enough, in the orchestral exposition it is established as the indisputable main theme. When the piano enters, without ceremony and with a fanciful idea of its own, the strings intervene to issue a gentle but firm reminder of the basic situation. However, as the soloist goes on, introducing three new themes and moving into unexpected tonal areas, the orchestra seems bewitched by the spontaneity of it all. It is the pianist who eventually remembers the march tune and brings the exposition back into line. Even so, the harmonically adventurous development, led from the front by the soloist, has little to do with any of the main themes. The fact is that the main theme was so well established in the first place that, at the appropriate point, it takes no more than its quiet reintroduction on the strings to restore order and begin the recapitulation.

The Andante - beloved by film-makers for its air of gentle resignation - is similarly spontaneous. In this case, however, there is no need for thematic discipline: the rhythms of the opening bars, the steady pizzicato on cellos and basses and the slightly anxious triplet figuration above it, persist through nearly the whole of the movement. So on that basis the soloist is free to wander in any harmonic direction, to introduce contrasting material in the middle, and even to reintroduce the main theme in the wrong key on the way back to the mood of the opening.

When he first performed the Concerto in C major (in the Burgtheater in Vienna on 10 March 1785) Mozart must have been relieved to embark on a third movement which, in comparison with the first two, takes no risks. It is a securely constructed and - though it teases its main theme with provocative harmonies in the middle - essentially cheerful rondo.