Between April and December 1775, Mozart, then 19, wrote five violin concertos, probably mainly for his own benefit, but possibly also with Antonio Brunetti, concertmaster of the court orchestra of Salzburg’s Archbishop Colloredo, in mind. Of these, the last two achieved the greatest popularity: No. 4 in D major and No. 5 in A major. Composing his Fourth Violin Concerto in D major KV 218, Mozart used Luigi Boccherini’s concerto in the same key as his model. Still, it is a well-known fact that he was never a slave to other composers’ example, and that he could always subjugate inspirations from various stylistic spheres – French, German, and local Viennese as well as Italian – to his own imagination.
In Violin Concerto No. 4, the relationships between the solo instrument and orchestra are yet not as differentiated as they are in Mozart’s later piano concertos, but the form is already highly coherent and characteristic in its typically Mozartian ease of developing musical narration. Violin concertos hold a special place in Mozart’s oeuvre. Hermann Abert, author of a fundamental monograph of the composer, described them as full of youthful energy that already knows its own worth; playful at times, at times deep in reverie and free play with form. This seems a particularly shrewd observation when one listens to the energetic march motive that opens Fourth Concerto, the lyrical song of the violin in Andante and the elegant and coquettish Rondo. The rondo features an original episode stylized for a popular musette, where the melody is played with a bourdon on an empty string. In October 1777, Wolfgang Amadeus reported to his father from Augsburg that he performed his “Strassburger Concert” there, and that it went down well to great applause. This must have been Fourth Concerto in D major, as evidenced by the similarity of the above-mentioned rondo episode with the musette in Carl von Dittersdorf’s Carnival Symphony entitled Ballo Strasburghese. It was one of the last documented appearances of young Mozart as violinist. Despite earnest motivation by his father, Mozart rejected the career of a violin virtuoso and finally chose the piano. But his violin concertos remain, and so does their lasting charm.
Adam Walaciński