The
Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major (
K.The Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed....
219) was written by
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as...
in 1775, premiering during the holiday season that year in
Salzburg' is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg. Salzburg's "Old Town" with its world famous baroque architecture is one of the best-preserved city centres north of the Alps, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The city is noted for its...
. It follows the typical fast-slow-fast musical structure.
Mozart composed the majority of his concertos for string instruments from 1773 to 1779, but it is unknown for whom, or for what occasion, he wrote them. Similarly, the dating of these works is unclear.
The
Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major (
K.The Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed....
219) was written by
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as...
in 1775, premiering during the holiday season that year in
Salzburg' is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg. Salzburg's "Old Town" with its world famous baroque architecture is one of the best-preserved city centres north of the Alps, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The city is noted for its...
. It follows the typical fast-slow-fast musical structure.
Background
Mozart composed the majority of his concertos for string instruments from 1773 to 1779, but it is unknown for whom, or for what occasion, he wrote them. Similarly, the dating of these works is unclear. Analysis of the handwriting, papers and watermarks has proved that all five violin concertos were re-dated several times. The year of composition of the fifth concerto "1775" was scratched out and replaced by "1780", and later changed again to "1775". Mozart would not use the key of
A majorA major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...
for a concerto again until the Piano Concerto K. 414.
The autograph score is preserved in the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress and is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books. The head...
, Washington D.C.
Structure
The concerto is scored for 2
oboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s, 2 horns and
stringThe string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
s.
The movements are as follows:
- Allegro Aperto - Adagio - Allegro Aperto
- Adagio
- Rondo - Tempo di Minuetto
The
aperto marking on the first movement is a rare marking in Mozart's instrumental music, but appears much more frequently in his operatic music. It implies that the piece should be played in a broader, more majestic way than might be indicated simply by
allegro. The first movement opens with the orchestra playing the main theme, a typical Mozartian tune. The solo violin comes in with a short but sweet dolce
adagio passage in A Major with a simple accompaniment in the orchestra. (This is the only instance in Mozart's concerto repertoire in which an
adagio interlude of this sort occurs at the first soloist entry of the concerto.) It then transitions back to the main theme with the solo violin playing a different melody on top of the orchestra. The first movement is 10-11 minutes long.
The rondo finale's main theme is a typical Mozartean theme, but the contrasting sections feature loud passages of
Turkish music"Turkish music", in the sense described here, is not really music of Turkey, but rather a musical style that was occasionally used by the European composers of the Classical music era...
that have caused some to call this the "Turkish Concerto".
Mozart later composed the
Adagio for violin and orchestra, K. 261The Adagio in E for Violin and Orchestra, K. 261, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1776. It was probably a replacement movement for the original slow movement of his Violin Concerto No. 5 in A...
as a substitute slow movement for this concerto.
The whole piece is about 28 minutes long.
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