Piano Concerto in F major, K.459

While there is only one “Coronation” Concerto, it seems that two works are qualified to bear the title. The Piano Concerto in D major, K537, which has long carried the “Coronation” nickname, was performed by the composer during the celebrations of the coronation of Leopold II in Frankfurt in 1789. But so too, it is believed, was the Piano Concerto in F, K.459. If that is true, even though it was written five years earlier, it was well chosen for the occasion, particularly if the now lost trumpet and drum parts were available at the time. Even without them, the march-like material of the first movement would have made a suitably festive effect.

There are, of course, other themes apart from the brisk march tune presented by flute and violins in the opening bars. It is, however, the only one that matters. Although various ideas are put forward in the orchestral introduction, nothing emerges that is as clearly defined in line or character. The piano, which makes its first entry with the march tune, does go on to offer alternative material but flute, oboes and bassoons express their impatience to get back to the main theme and the soloist duly complies with a variant on it, clearly to the approval of the woodwind. It is left to the violins to introduce the definitive, comparatively lyrical second subject, with answering phrases from an apparently reconciled woodwind section. As soon as the soloist takes up the new theme, however, both wind and strings revert to the opening phrase of the march tune. That same phrase echoes throughout the development section, usually on woodwind against flowing piano arpeggios. The march tune is as prominent in the recapitulation as it was in the exposition and, of course, it is featured in the cadenza.

The slow movement, based on a theme clearly anticipating Deh vieni in the last act of Il nozze di Figaro, is a rather more intimate inspiration. The resemblance to Susanna’s aria is particularly striking when, having been introduced by the orchestra and repeated by the piano, the melody is taken up by flute and bassoon and elaborated with the rising scales which are such a pretty feature of the scoring in the opera. The orchestra, now represented by the woodwind quintet, leads the way too in the minor-key episodes which so effectively offset the serenity associated with the main theme.

Another factor that Mozart might have had in mind when he chose this work for his concert at the Frankfurt coronation is the character of the last movement. Far from being the merely cheerful rondo the opening theme seems to suggest it will be, it introduces at an early stage a comparatively serious passage of counterpoint shared between wind and strings - an episode which assumes a positively regal stature when it is extended later in the movement.