#k. 482

The slow movement, an Andante in C minor, a combination of song and variations, introduces a powerful element: expression unadorned, almost an exhibition of sadness, false consolation, despair, and resignation. Mozart exploits the contrast of major and minor in an entirely new way–that of nineteenth century. It is significant of the cultural state of Vienna at the time that the public, at a subscription concert of Mozart’s on 23 December, understood the direct appeal of the movement and demanded its repetition. Mozart himself was astonished. Leopold wrote to his daughter, on 13 January 1786, that Wolfgang had written him two weeks previously that he had ‘composed…. a new piano concerto in E-flat,  in which (a rather unusual occurrence!) he had to repeat Andante.’