Mozart: Concerto for 3 pianos & orchestra in F major, No. 7, 'Lodron' |Trifonov, Matsuev & Gergiev

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Concerto for three pianos and orchestra in F major, No. 7, K. 242, known as 'Lodron', being performed at the 2015 Verbier Festival. The three piano soloists are Daniil Trifonov, Denis Matsuev, and Valery Gergiev, with Gergiev simultaneously conducting the Verbier Festival Orchestra. 

 

Mozart wrote over 20 piano concertos, his affinity for the form coming as no surprise given that the composer was himself a renowned virtuoso on the instrument. He fittingly approaches the piano parts of his concertos with the same virtuosity. The Piano Concerto No. 7, composed in February of 1776, is Mozart's sole concert for three pianos.

 

 Its popular name – Lodron – stems from Mozart dedicating it to his friend, Countess Antonia Lodron, that she might play it alongside her two daughters. So that the youngest of the Lodron daughters would be able to play along, the third piano part is written a little more simply. In 1780,

 

 Mozart reworked the Lodron concert in a version for two pianos. To this day, his seventh piano concerto is often performed with just two pianos. Here, however, we have the original arrangement of his Concerto for three pianos and orchestra in F major, No. 7 – and that with a stellar lineup of musicians. 

 (00:23) I. Allegro 

(08:48) II. Adagio 

(17:34) III. Rondeau. Tempo di Minuetto