programme notes

written by WALDO GEUNS

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, KV 491 (1786)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 35 in D major, KV 385, 'Haffner' (1782)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 15 in B-flat major, KV 450 (1784)

[read also: in conversation with Hewitt]
[discover also: Hewitt's favourites]
[discover also: Hewitt Plays Piano Concerto No. 24]
[all programme notes]

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14.02.2025 FLAGEY BRUSSELS

For the 2025 edition of the Flagey Piano Days, we are bringing Canadian Mozart expert Angela Hewitt and her 'Mozart Odyssey' project to Brussels. Between March 2024 and December 2026, Hewitt will perform all of Mozart’s piano concertos worldwide with various orchestras and conductors. Together with the Brussels Philharmonic and Kazushi Ono, she will perform no fewer than three concertos over two concert evenings.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote only two of his 27 piano concertos in a minor key. The Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor s one of these exceptions. Like the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, this work reflects an intensity and drama that are rather unusual in Mozart’s oeuvre. The music dates from 1786, the year when he also composed the opera Le nozze di Figaro.

Mozart introduces the dramatic mood in the first movement, Allegro, with a majestic orchestral introduction. The orchestral sound is richer than usual, thanks to the addition of clarinets alongside the oboes, bassoons and flutes. The theme, played by the strings, seem to be suspended between hope and despair thanks to the many chromatic and tense leaps in the chords. When the piano enters, it feels as if the soloist were engaged in a struggle: sometimes powerful and challenging, while at other times introverted and contemplative. Mozart himself was – as for all his piano concertos – the soloist at the première performance in Vienna. It was customary at the time for the solo cadenza to be improvised by the pianist. Mozart often added a cadenza only when the concerto was published. The exact reason why he did not do so for his Piano Concerto No. 24 is not known. This meant that each performance brought a surprise, since it was up to the performer to compose his own cadenza that did justice to the intensity that was so characteristic of this first movement.

In the Larghetto, the second movement, the mood changes completely. The melody with which the piano begins it sounds hopeful and serene. Simplicity and depth go hand in hand, thanks to the delicate interplay of the piano and the subtle orchestral accompaniment. The third and final movement, Allegretto, is a theme and variations The theme itself is simple, but the eight variations that follow are very diverse: from cheerful to dramatic and virtuoso. The dark energy of the opening movement remains constantly in the background, even during the fleet-footed and playful moments. This gives the finale an almost inescapable intensity. Even Beethoven was impressed, it is said, by the dramatic power of this work. He apparently said to a colleague: "We shall never be able to do anything like that!"

In 1782, Mozart received a commission from the wealthy and influential Haffner family of Salzburg to write a serenade in honour of the noble title that Sigmund Haffner Jr. had received. This serenade – consisting of a march and two minuets – was intended to serve as festive background music. Later that year, Mozart reworked the serenade into the grand, four-movement Haffner Symphony that had its première in Vienna on 23 March 1783.

Of the first movement, Allegro con spirito, Mozart wrote in a letter to his father that it must be played ‘with much fire”. The music opens with a powerful unison outburst of the orchestra. This grand theme returns in a series of sparkling dialogues between the strings and the winds. Here, Mozart used the monothematic technique of Joseph Haydn, in which all the thematic material is based on the opening measures.

The second movement, Andante, is singing and lyrical. For the middle part as well, usually a dramatic contrasting movement in a slow tempo, Mozart opted for a broad, choral-like passage played by the woodwinds. The third movement, Menuet, is the only remaining fragment of the original serenade. This gracious, dance-like music leads to the finale, Presto. Mozart wrote in a letter that this movement was to be played “as fast as possible”. The final movement of the Haffner Symphony is exuberant and virtuosic, and has been described as “an explosion of joy".

Mozart finished his Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat in the first half of 1784, one of the most productive periods of his career in Vienna. In that year, he wrote at least six piano concertos, each with its own character. He set the bar ever higher, and considered this concerto, along with his next one, the Piano Concerto No. 16 in D, “as a concerto that makes you sweat, but the B flat major concerto outdoes the one in D in its level of difficulty."

Even nowadays, this work is considered one of the most challenging concertos, with is many complex scale patterns and broken chords. The opening movement, Allegro, is marked by a lively, joyful mood. But right from the first entry of the soloist, the technical challenges are obvious. The piano part is both virtuosic and lyrical, allowing Mozart to display his talent for making complex passages sound natural and effortless. The second movement, Andante, is intimate and reflective. Mozart invites the listener to a conversation, in which the piano plays the main role with soft, almost vocal lines. The orchestration is simple and expressive, allowing full attention to be devoted to the piano.

The concerto ends with a cheerful Allegro, a playful rondo. The sparkling melody with which the piano opens the movement exhibits noticeable similarities with the theme from the final movement of his later Piano Concerto No. 22 written in 1785. As in the first movement, Mozart places the pianist—that is: himself—in the limelight, with a virtuoso and radiant part.