Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 12, 13 & 14 (version for piano and string quartet) **

Featuring

Robert Blocker
Austin Hartman
Hyunsu Ko
Mary Persin
Jason Calloway
Biava Quartet

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Did you know?

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Performer Biography

Robert Blocker, the pianist on this album, is the Henry and Lucy Moses Dean of Music and Professor of Piano at Yale University.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Mozart described his concertos as a "happy medium between what is too easy and too difficult," designed to please both connoisseurs and less learned listeners.

Composer Biography

Mozart moved to Vienna in 1781, hoping to advance his career in a city he called "the land of the piano."

Composition History

Mozart advertised his new piano concertos (K.413, 414, and 415) as performable with either a large orchestra or a string quartet, a quattro.

Album & Artwork

The cover painting, attributed to Jean-Baptiste Greuze, is a portrait purportedly of a young Mozart, though its authenticity is debated.

Compositional Technique

The slow movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto K.414 is thought to be a tribute to his English mentor Johann Christian Bach, including a nearly exact quotation from Bach's overture to La calamità dei cuori.

Performer Biography

The Biava Quartet, performing on this album, won the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and top prizes at the Premio Borciani and London International Competitions.