Zoltán Kocsis: Mozart – Piano concerto no. 17 K 453 – I. Allegro

MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 17 in G major K 453

I. Allegro

Zoltán Kocsis, guest conductor and soloist

Sony Chamber Orchestra of the Reina Sofía School of Music

Maestro Kocsis first corrects the articulation and rhythmic precision for the violins in the ornaments at the beginning, to feel the first measure as an upbeat measure, accent, direction towards the 2nd measure, the character of the trill that should be virtuoso… and then they play the complete movement followed, with the maestro conducting at the piano.
After the performance, Kocsis indicates that he has not heard certain notes in the arpeggios, they must play them with greater clarity, and that the character is expressive at the beginning, not giocoso, although little by little it becomes more giocoso. He also asks them to play in such a way that the Alberti bass does not stand out too much at a certain moment, because it is not the interesting thing. Zoltán Kocsis makes indications on the expression and phrasing according to the harmony (the change to E flat major should be sotto voce).
Returning from the beginning, they review again the articulation and phrasing of the initial melody in the violins, and in general in the entire orchestra. He also reviews the sound balance: the bassoon should be heard more, later when the winds enter the melody of the strings is not heard (it helps to play detaché), a certain part later the orchestra has sounded a little too loud, advancing in the movement they have to decrease more to give more margin to the calm after the previous moment that sounds “angry”, etc. They also review the interpenetration of the sound, especially between flute and oboe at a certain point that is difficult. Finally, he asks them to take care of the termination of the sound in certain chords so that the reverberation does not spoil that moment.

Language: English