Mozart Piano Concerto #22

I apologize for my negligence. I feel like I'm drowning in music that I need to learn. Among the music is my lovely Mozart concerto. (As an aside, I love it when, while learning a piece, friends reach the point where they begin calling it "their" piece. Their concerto. Their sonata. I think that it's a milestone in the personal development of the musical learning process. If that makes sense.)

I don't know why pianists don't play this concerto more often. To be honest, this is the piece that sold me on Mozart concertos. I never found them to be particularly interesting or engaging before. Though, it could also be my taste, which (I hope) is expanding and refining.

I could write for ages about how much I love this concerto. But I've only memorized the first movement, so I'll talk about the others later. (I never feel that a piece is really known, internalized, until it's memorized.) I love that it opens with big, triumphant E-flat chords. It reminds me of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, though maybe with less bravado. It quickly withdraws into a pretty, sweet melody. For four measures. Then the E-flat chords are back! It's so teasing and charming and just delightful. The piano work is brimming with fast scales and arpeggio figurations. It keeps with the charming character, I think.

Listen to an Annie Fischer recording, if you can find one. She doesn't take the piece too seriously, and I think that's key.