Musicians often express supreme reverence toward Mozart, and with good reason. But to think of Mozart simply as the embodiment of musical perfection is not always helpful to performers of his music. There are times when we need to be flexible and creative, and maybe just a bit less reverent.

If the goal of a performer is to bring music to life in a way similar to what the composer envisioned, then playing a Mozart concerto exactly as written is not, in fact, a great way to achieve that goal. I’ll explain why.

Professional musicians of Mozart’s time all improvised. It was a given. And Mozart, unsurprisingly, was brilliant at it. His solo improvisations and piano concertos were highlights of his public concerts. In a concerto, Mozart was up in front of the orchestra showing his best stuff. This included plenty of improvisation, both along with the group and alone at specified moments throughout the piece. When you picture this, it’s not all that different from Duke Ellington riffing on tunes and chord changes in front of his big band.