Mozart starts writing concertos for the violin at nineteen years of age. The composer's energy will express itself in the gallant style.
The gallant style with its multiple musical ideas, simplicity of harmonic writing, could lead the composer to superficial results.
Mozart plays cheerfully around these traps to write a brilliant and yet very sincere music. In the third violin concerto, there is a real dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra which then is not a mere accompanist. The breadth of the first movement and an obvious tension in its development by modulations in minor, leads us directly into the suppleness of the Adagio which is one of Mozart's most inspired piece. The Finale, a true "pot-pourri" in the French style is full of surprises of thematical renewal and inventions. There Mozart shows all the richness of his inspiration.
The concerto n°5 is obviously the most "worked on" of all Mozart's violin concertos. Mozart exploits all the technical possibilities of the instrument but never with the goal of superficial virtuosity. The orchestra part and thematical developments are refined and there is a true lyrical thrust in the soloist's part, especially in the second movement, Adagio, where intensity is proportional to its emotional reserve.
The Final movement, Tempo di menuetto, shows in the middle, a very unexpected episode "in the Turkish style" though this was so fashionable at the time, Mozart there shows all the elegance and mastery of form as well as inspiration that is already the trademark of his genius.