Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto per Pianoforte n°21 KV 467

LA RECENSIONE

Bliss and unease together.

I was reflecting with a friend some time ago, it was April 2005, I was sitting in the middle of the garden of a Palladian villa, I believe Villa Capra, in the Vicenza countryside, a dreamlike setting. And the music was of incomparable beauty because there is nothing else produced by humans that can withstand the comparison with the Piano Concerto No. 21 KV 467 by W.A. Mozart.

Now you can remove the lawn, the flowers, the magic of Palladio, and Mozart remains to fill the atmosphere, and everything else disappears or becomes superfluous.

Is there a better composition than this in the world? Here we are in the presence of the Salzburg Genius at the pinnacle of creativity. The concerto consists of Allegro, Andante, and Allegro Vivace Assai and is titled after Elvira Madigan, following the custom of the time of dedicating scores to noblewomen or court ladies. After the initial, lively measures, here comes the enchantment. Six minutes and 48 seconds to dream, soar into the air, and experience the absence of gravity. The mind is already elsewhere. The body is guided towards unknown shores.

Is this the state of grace, bliss? Well, yes. Or if it isn’t, it comes very close. But it isn’t enough because Mozart doesn’t just stimulate the receptors of beauty. In that epochal passage, as the violin, light as a feather, makes its way and the orchestra intervenes to create the supporting structure, after the purity of the sound, the piano enters, and the dialogue with the strings becomes questioning, concerned. Serenity gives way to anguish, that sense of lightness experienced a moment before gives way to the unease of the soul.

Mozart plays all our exposed strings, broadens the heart, and lays a veil of melancholy over the face. To listen to. To wear out even. Amadeus is beyond time.