Violin Concerto No. 1

At a glance

• What it isthe third and last movement of Violin Concerto No. 1, marked Presto, very fast.
• Who, when, whythought to have been written in Salzburg when Mozart was about seventeen.
• What to listen forthe alternation between passages where the solo violin runs in fast notes and passages where the orchestra answers with force.

Listen for

• Setting offthe orchestra opens with a fast, vigorous theme.
• Runningthe solo violin moves between high and low in finely divided fast notes, showing off a young player's fingers.
• The finish linethe theme returns, and orchestra and soloist finish together with force.

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.

The finale of No. 1 is in sonata form: a theme is presented, spread through several keys, then brought back. The finales of the later Concertos Nos. 3, 4 and 5 turned into dance-like rondos, showing that Mozart tried out different approaches within a short time.