Is it true that WA Mozart once wrote a piano concerto that is physically impossible to play?

Question

Any details are appreciated--especially the name, and a link at which I can hear a synthesized version of the concerto?

Answer 1

All I know, is that his last titled work: Requiem was never completed. And Mozart's widow asked many to do so, but no one ever could.

And, Beethoven was very fond of Mozart, once being quoted:
"Ah, that piece. That's Mozart saying 'here's what I could do, if only you had ears to hear!' "

Mozart was a very gifted musician!

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Answer 2

Also, the standards for difficulty were slightly different back then, when music was much simpler than in the time of Liszt or Rachmaninoff. So, while it may have been nearly impossible to play during its heyday, so was Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto when it was first composed. Yet today, you can frequently hear college students plunking it out.

If you really want to hear some of the most difficult piano music ever written, listen Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" sonata and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto's 2 and 3. They are all remarkablly difficult and brilliant pieces. Heck, while you're at it check out that Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. It's worth it!

There are some pieces out there however that truly are impossible to play. The works of Milton Babbitt come to mind. He took the idea of serialsim created by Schoenberg and used it to its most extreme possible limits by creating "total serialism". This is one of the reasons he eventually got involved with electonic music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Babbitt

Answer 3

those of you who recommend the Tchaikovsky #a million, Beethoven #3 or 5, Brahms or Schumann or any of the friendly Mozart stay overall performance are superb. those are masterworks that all people others are whilst in comparison with. As you commence listening to works exterior the field, you may stumble on Saint-Saens Piano Concerto #2 and 5, Ravel's Concerto in G and the daunting Concerto for Left Hand, Prokofiev's Concerto #3, Shostakovich #a million, Gershwin's Piano Concerto, Poulenc Concerto and the Concerto for 2 Pianos. For pianistic bombast there is Khachaturian's purely piano concerto or try Litoff's Concerto Symphonique #4. you will discover that there is extra suitable than the Tchaikovsky #a million....there is even his Concerto #2. i'm confident which you will discover those on You Tube.

Answer 4

Actually there was somebody that completed Mozart's Requiem and it is the version we have today. The majority of Mozart's Lacrimosa from the Requiem is by this composer who took the initiative of guessing what Mozart would have wanted.

As for the piano concerto, if there is a recording, then it is possible to play...this applies to the CD collection labeled "Complete Mozart Piano Concertos"....

Answer 5

Every one of Mozart's piano concertos is capable of being played by an accomplished pianist. But I do remember reading somewhere many years ago that he did write a little piece for solo piano (I wish I could remember specifically what it was) that seems physically incapable of being played. Here's what I recall about it:

Mozart and Haydn were close friends and both of them had a great sense of humor. On one occasion Mozart showed Haydn the manuscript of a new piece he had written for the piano, and asked Haydn to play it. Haydn proceeded to do so, but soon came upon a passage that stopped him in his tracks: at this particular point, the pianist's hands were playing notes at the upper and lower parts of the keyboard, but the music indicated that one additional note needed to be played, simultaneously, that lay in between and totally out of reach of either hand. Haydn said, "This can't be played!"--but Mozart said that he could play it with no difficulty whatsoever. He then sat down at the piano, and when he came to the troublesome passage, Mozart bent over and played the "impossible" note with the tip of his nose!

Answer 6

The simple answer to that is: No. When he was writing the three concertos K449 -450-451 he did write to his father that these 'would make you sweat' (and they do) but that is 'as good as it gets' in the context of your question. All his concertos pose deeply enigmatic problems in performance, but none are unplayable -- he demonstrated that himself -- in the sense you seem to be pointing to.

Answer 7

They have all been performed by many pianists. Some other composers have written far more technically difficult works, but even those have been masted, Dome Rachmaninoff, Debussy, others.