What is the right tempro for Mozart Concerto in D

[AurokeFlute]

I got it today, i am working on it for a young artist competition in december, and what is a good tempo for it? i was thinking around 120 or something.

[Zevang]

Tempo in Mozart concerto is not strict as many think.
For me, the important thing is not if you can play as quick as possible, but in Mozart concertos it's very important to show that you can play clearly. Articulation is the key word. To stablish the tempo Mozart didn't exactly wrote a number, but rather wrote a description like "allegro" or "andante". So you have many possibilities of choosing the tempo you will be adopt for each movement, assuming that you don't leave the limits of those descriptions.

Since I presume you are novice to this Mozart flute concerto, I'd advise you to practice very slow. Work gradually the speed and don't accept less than a clear articulation and good intonation. If you loose control of it, then you are playing too quick. Don't simply stablish a tempo, work your own tempo and grow gradually until you are comfortable and the peace sounds musical for you.

[lianeandflute]

from about 116-138… it depends how you like the speed and what you're able to do. professionals usually play within this range of tempi. i know "Allegro" doesn't actually specify these speeds, it just meant brisk and lively. These metronome speeds are just what I have gathered from listening to lots of recordings.
I actually did the Mozart D maj for my LTCL, and the 1st movement I played at 132-138. My teacher and I thought that for me, 120 should be the minimum. I think lots of people will disagree with this speed, a lot of people feel that if you play it too fast, you lose a lot of the essential feel to the piece… but I feel like anything slower than 120 just drags the whole thing.
So if I were you, I would listen to a lot of recordings and make up your own mind.
Good recordings I like:
- Emmanuel Pahud
- Sharon Bezaly (favourite, hands down)
- Albrecht Mayer (he's an oboist so it's in C, still a great recording that we can learn so much from)

But, as Zevang said, Mozart didn't write a number. He wrote a description, "Allegro." The most important thing is to play it cleanly and clearly with a lot of musical phrasing. Play with different tone colours and different characters of the piece. The whole thing is like a dance. In Mozart you are very exposed, so it's important to have very clean articulation, solid sense of pulse and vey phrases clear. And of course, if you can't play it slowly, you can't play is fast - as a general rule of practicing. You have to master it at a slow speed before you can really achieve anything at a faster speed.

=] good luck! The D maj is a really satisfying concerto to play

[fluteguy18]

Mozart is a really devious man in my opinion. It's fairly easy to master his concerti on a superficial level, but once you really get into the nitty gritty of it... it's impossible. It's NEVER good enough. Ever.

The above posters are correct about saying that Mozart gave descriptive markings for the indications of tempo. And that's exactly what they are. Style markings, not tempo markings. You must also take into account the style of the musical period. Not meaning to discount the above posters, but we often play classical and baroque music faster than they were intended to be played. Mozart's concerti are intended to be light, whimsical, carefree, and playful. I personally feel that with this concerto (or any baroque/classical piece) that any tempo over 125 is asking for criticism. I myself am working on this concerto for a few auditions at the moment. My staple tempo marking is 115. I can play it faster, but I honestly feel that performing it at a faster tempo is disrespecting the stylistic intentions of the composer and substituting our modern interpretations of what 'allegro' is supposed to be (120-139bpm respectively).

Leone Buyse is one of the leading stylistic interpreters of Mozart at the moment (at least... according to many). I played the Mozart for her at 115/118, and she seemed to really like that tempo. She felt that 115-120 had energy but was not too aggressive for the style period. While she did not enjoy my playing (message me for details if you would like), she did approve of the tempo and the style that it brought to the piece. If you want any other indications of tempo for this piece, listen to the oboe version (which was the original). From consulting oboists that I know who have played and studied this concerto, they generally feel that the ideal performance tempo should be between 104-115.

Just my $0.02

[MissyHPhoenix]

I agree with FG18. Just my opinion since I have not performed this Mozart piece in public, but I believe that modern flutists tend to play too fast these days. There seems to be a huge emphasis on going as fast as humanly possible (and beyond in some instances ) and, to me, there is so much musically lost by doing this. The point in playing flute, to me, is the beautiful, haunting sounds produced. Go too fast and this is submerged in a deluge of notes flowing together. (wow, that was poetic .... ). You don't have to play at the speed of light to be a good flutist -- you have to produce beautiful music. Work hard on interpreting the soul of the piece of music you are performing, and have the tempo be secondary. Within limits, that is. You don't want to decide to play an Allegro piece at Andante or Largo, but ..... you don't always have to go for the faster end of the range.

Simply my opinion, however. Everyone plays the way they feel the music, which is the beauty of individuality. There is room for everybody.

Have fun! That is a very enjoyable Mozart piece.