Structure
The work is scored for solo piano, 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings.
It consists of 3 movements:
- Allegro, in E-flat major and common (C) time 10:30
- Andantino, in C minor and 3/4 time 12:00
- Rondo (Presto), in E flat major and cut time 10:00
The first movement opens, unusually for the time, with interventions by the soloist, anticipating Beethoven's Fourth and Fifth Concertos. As Girdlestone (1964) notes, its departures from convention do not end with this early solo entrance, but continue in the style of dialogue between piano and orchestra in the rest of the movement. Mozart wrote two cadenzas for this movement.
The second movement is written in the relative minor key. In only five of Mozart's piano concertos is the second movement in a minor key (K. 41, K. 271, K. 456, K. 482, and K. 488. K. 41 is an arrangement). Mozart wrote two cadenzas for this movement.
The third movement which opens with the solo piano is in a rondo form on a large scale. It is interrupted, surprisingly, by a slow minuet section (a procedure Mozart would repeat with his 22nd concerto, 1785, also in the key of E-flat). The work ends in the original tempo.
Read more about this topic: Piano Concerto No. 9 (Mozart)
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