Piano Concerto No. 23 (Mozart)

Piano Concerto in A major
No. 23
by W. A. Mozart
The opening page of the autograph manuscript
Key	A major
Catalogue	K. 488
Genre	Concerto
Style	Classical period
Composed	1786 (1786)
Published	1800 (1800)
Movements	Three (Allegro, Adagio, Allegro assai)
Scoring	Piano orchestra

The Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major (K. 488) is a composition for piano and orchestra written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was finished, according to Mozart's own catalogue, on March 2, 1786, around the time of the premiere of his opera, Le nozze di Figaro. It was one of three subscription concerts given that spring and was probably played by Mozart himself at one of these. The concerto is scored for piano solo and an orchestra consisting of one flute, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings. In Mozart's later works the wind instruments are equal to the stringed instruments, and this is also the case in this concerto.

The concerto has three movements and lasts about 26 minutes:

The first movement is in A major and is in sonata form. The piece begins with a double exposition, the first played by the orchestra, and the second when the piano joins in. The first exposition is static from a tonal point of view and is quite concise, the third theme is not yet revealed. The second exposition includes the soloist and is modulatory. It also includes the previously unheard third theme. The second exposition is ornamented as opposed to the first exposition which is not. The second theme has harmonic tension. This is expressed by dissonances that are played on the beat, and then solved by an interval of a descending second. This is also expressed in the use of chromatics in the melody and bass lines which is a source of harmonic tension, as the listeners anticipate the arrival of the tonic.

The second, slow movement, in ternary form, is somewhat operatic in tone. The piano begins alone with a theme in Siciliano rhythm characterized by unusually wide leaps. This is the only movement by Mozart in F sharp minor. The dynamics are soft throughout most of the piece. The middle of the movement contains a brighter section in A major announced by flute and clarinet that Mozart would later use to introduce the trio "Ah! taci ingiusto core!" in his opera Don Giovanni.