Mario R. Mercado explains Mozart's pivotal involvement in the profound transformation of keyboard practice in the late eighteenth century as the piano supplanted the harpsichord and the keyboard instrument exchanged its former continuo role for a new solo role. After an intriguing look at Mozart's extraordinary childhood filled with the singular experiences and opportunities that helped form his early career, Mercado examines Mozart's early piano works and the new pianistic idioms that shaped their style. Paying particular attention to the Concerto in E-flat Major K. 271, written in 1777, which in its new level of keyboard virtuosity represents a decisive advance in pianistic style, Mercado then scrutinizes the piano genres the composer cultivated during his early maturity--the solo sonata and ensemble sonata as well as smaller solo works and the concerto. With his last two piano concertos and a group of small solo works from the final decade of his life, Mozart took the forms of his era to their limit, creating a musical transition to the nineteenth century.
