Piano Concerto No. 25 (Mozart)

Piano Concerto in C major
No. 25
by W. A. Mozart
A fortepiano from the period
Fortepiano by Johann Andreas Stein (Augsburg, 1775) – Berlin Musical Instrument Museum
KeyC major
CatalogueK. 503
Composed1786 (1786)
MovementsThree (Allegro maestoso, Andante, Allegretto)
Scoring
  • Piano
  • orchestra

The Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503, was completed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on 4 December 1786, alongside the Prague Symphony, K. 504. Although two more concertos (No. 26, K. 537 and No. 27, K. 595) would later follow, this work is the last of what are considered the twelve great piano concertos written in Vienna between 1784 and 1786.[1] Chronologically the work is the 21st of Mozart's 23 original piano concertos.

K. 503 is now widely recognized "by common consent" as "one of Mozart's greatest masterpieces in the concerto genre".[2] However, it had long been neglected in favor of Mozart's other "more brilliant" concertos, such as No. 21, K. 467. Though Mozart performed it on several occasions,[3] it was not performed again in Vienna until after his death, and it only gained acceptance in the standard repertoire in the later part of the twentieth century.[4] Mozart's pupil Johann Nepomuk Hummel valued it – it was one of seven of Mozart's concertos which he arranged for chamber music ensemble.[5]

  1. ^ Marshall, Robert, ed. (2004). Eighteenth-Century Keyboard Music. Routledge. p. 345. ISBN 1135887764.
  2. ^ Keefe 2007, p. 58.
  3. ^ Mackie 2021, p. 225.
  4. ^ Richard Freed. "Kennedy Center program notes: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503". Archived from the original on 2017-05-10. Retrieved 2017-04-27.
  5. ^ Setiawan, Irene Margarete (April 2019). Serving Two Masters: Hummel’s Arrangement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C major, K. 503 (ca. 1828) (PDF) (doctor of musical arts thesis). University of British Columbia. p. 1. Retrieved 19 August 2024.