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Tell us about Mozart’s Rondo in A minor of 1787. Is this not a
valedictory piece, already pre-Romantic in mood?
Apart from the slow movement of the Piano Concerto in A Major, with which
it shares the same valedictory atmosphere, for me there is nothing more
beautiful than this Rondo by Mozart. It uses highly advanced chromaticism that
foreshadows the style of Chopin. It’s a very difficult piece. Once it was a set work
in a piano competition where Mieczyslaw Horszowski and I were members of
the jury. The candidates had a choice between playing the Rondo in A minor or
Schubert’s Impromptu in G flat major. Horszowski predicted that any pianist who
chose the Rondo would be eliminated. His prophecy turned out to be accurate.
How to explain it? This music contains both sadness and joy, and the performer
has to have experienced both. It’s one of the most personal pieces Mozart ever
composed. There is nothing luminous; everything is summed up in the smile
evoked by the switch from the minor mode to the major. I imagine the composer
remembering moments of past happiness. He takes leave of the listener as he will
do, four years later, in his last concerto, in B flat major.
MOZART / BEETHOVEN / SCHUBERT