Концерт для фортепиано № 20 Моцарта: Драматизм и гармония.

Concertante work by Mozart
The Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1785. The first performance took place at the Mehlgrube Casino in Vienna on 11 February 1785, with the composer as the soloist.

The first movement starts off the concerto in the dark tonic key of D minor with the strings restlessly but quietly building up to a full forte. The theme is quickly taken up by the piano soloist and developed throughout the long movement. A slightly brighter mood exists in the second theme of F major (the relative major), but it never becomes jubilant. The timpani further heighten the tension in the coda before the cadenza. The movement ends on a quiet note.

The Romanze second movement, in B major, is a five part rondo (ABACA) with a coda. The trumpets and timpani are not used in this movement. The beginning features a solo piano playing the flamboyant and charming main B major melody without accompaniment. This lyrical, passionate, tender and romantic melody paints a picture of peace and a sense of harmony between the piano and the orchestra and has also inspired its title 'Romanze'. Halfway through, the piece moves on to the second episode (part C), where instead of the beautiful melody, a storm sets in. The new stormy material is a turbulent, agitated and ominous theme, in the relative key of G minor, which greatly contrasts with the peaceful mood at the starting of the movement. Though the storm section begins abruptly and without transition, after a transition back to the tonic key of B major we are greeted once again with the previously heard melody, which returns as the movement is nearing its end. The movement ends with an ascending arpeggio that is light and delicate, gradually becoming a faint whisper.

The final movement, a rondo, begins with the solo piano rippling upward in the home key before the full orchestra replies with a furious section. (This piano "rippling" is known as the Mannheim Rocket and is a string of eighth notes (D–F–A–D–F) followed by a quarter note (A). A second melody is touched upon by the piano, where the mood is still dark but strangely restless. A contrasting cheerful melody in F major is ushered in not long after, introduced by the orchestra before the solo piano rounds off the lively theme. A series of sharp piano chords snaps the bright melody, and then begin passages in D minor for solo piano again, afterwards taken up by full orchestra. Several modulations of the second theme (in A minor and G minor) follow. Thereafter follows the same format as above, with a momentary pause for introducing the customary cadenza. After the cadenza, the mood clears considerably and the piece is now fully sunny in character, as we are now in the parallel key of D major, and the bright happy melody is taken up, this time by the oboes and then winds. The solo piano repeats the theme before a full orchestral passage develops the passage, thereby rounding up the concerto with a jubilant finish.

The first movement was played in the ballet scene in Series 1 Episode 8 of the television series Mr. Robot. It is a theme in American composer James Hewitt’s Medley Overture in D minor major. The 1984 feature film Amadeus makes use of that movement when Mozart is stumbling home after an evening with Emanuel Schikaneder during a night of composing the score of his opera The Magic Flute. The second movement (minus the more tumultuous C part of the rondo) plays in the final scene and during the end credits.