Violin Concerto No. 1

At a glance

• What it isthe first movement of Violin Concerto No. 1, in B-flat major, marked Allegro moderato, moderately fast.
• Who, when, whylong known as a work of 1775, it is now widely dated to around 1773 on the evidence of handwriting studies of the score.
• What to listen forthe moment the solo violin first steps in after the orchestra has presented the theme.

Listen for

• Setting the stagethe orchestra first plays a bright theme, setting the stage before the soloist appears.
• The entrancethe solo violin takes up the same idea and sings lightly in the high register.
• The cadenzanear the end, the orchestra stops and the soloist has a place to display technique alone. This passage differs from player to player.

When it was written

In the early 1770s Mozart worked in the court orchestra of his hometown, Salzburg, where he served as concertmaster and played the violin. His father Leopold, a musician who had written a well-known violin method, urged his son again and again in letters to practice the violin harder.

In the 1770s Mozart wrote five violin concertos in Salzburg. No. 1, the first of them, carries the bright melodies he had absorbed on his Italian journeys and the give-and-take between orchestra and soloist. After moving to Vienna he wrote his concertos as a pianist rather than a violinist.