The traditional name associated with this work is not Mozart's own, nor was the work written on the occasion for which posterity has named it. Mozart remarks in a letter to his wife in April 1789 that he had just performed this concerto at court. But the nickname "Coronation" is derived from his playing of the work at the time of the coronation of Leopold II as Holy Roman Emperor in October 1790 in Frankfurt am Main. At the same concert, Mozart also played the Piano Concerto No. 19, K. 459. We know this because when Johann André of Offenbach published the first editions of both concertos in 1794, he identified them on their title pages as being performed on the occasion of Leopold's coronation. Alan Tyson in his introduction to Dover Publications' facsimile of the autograph score (which today is at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York) comments that "Although K. 459 has at times been called a 'Coronation' concerto, this title has nearly always been applied to K. 537".

Date of composition 1788
Type Concerto
Tonality D Major
Catalogue KV 537
Instruments Piano
Orchestra
Links
Autotranslations beta Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto pour piano n°26 en ré majeur, KV 537 "Coronation"
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto per pianoforte n. 26 in re maggiore, KV 537 "Coronation"
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Konzert Nr. 26 für Klavier D-dur, KV 537 "Coronation"