Mozart - Piano Concerto No.14 in E flat Major, K. 449

The Piano Concerto No. 14 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, written in 1784 is a piano concerto in E-flat major catalogued with K. 449.

It is the first composition he entered into a notebook of his music he then kept for the next seven years, marking down main themes, dates of completion, and other important information. From this notebook we have the information that he finished the concerto on February 9.

In the same year in succession he wrote several concertos, and in a letter to his father that May, wrote of the 15th and 16th concertos (in B flat and in D, KV. 450 and 451) that he "could not choose between them" but that "the one in E flat does not belong at all to the same category. It is one of a quite peculiar kind...". It is regarded as being the first of the mature series of concertos Mozart wrote, and indeed, commentators such as Girdlestone and Hutchings valued it as one of the best, particularly as all three movements are of the highest standard.

This concerto has three movements:
1. Allegro vivace. (3/4 time).
2. Andantino. (B flat major and 2/4 time).
3. Allegro ma non troppo. (2/2 time).

Works written in 1784 include besides this concerto the six piano concertos 14-19, the Quintet in E flat for Piano and Winds, along with several piano works - the Sonata in C Minor noteworthy, one string quartet (the "Hunt"), and several sets of orchestral dances also. Works by other composers known to Mozart from just around this time include the 80th symphony (in D minor) and the second cello concerto of Joseph Haydn; Michael Haydn had published two sets of quartets the year before (also the year of the two Mozart violin-viola duos which legend has it were produced to help that composer fulfil a commission, which Alfred Einstein regards as a dubious tale), and Carl Stamitz and Ignaz Pleyel each another set of six (Pleyel released a further set in 1784.) A Pleyel cello concerto (in C) was also released at some point between 1782-4 (Pleyel being a composer whose quartets, at least, Mozart rated highly.)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 -- 5 December 1791), baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era.

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty.

At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly.

While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons.

He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence on subsequent Western art music is profound; Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."

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