Concerto G major for Violin and Orchestra [antikvár]

Ill w. A. MOZART The Violin Concertos In the winter of 1774-5 Mozart, aged nineteen, was in Municii for the production of his opera La finta giarcíiiilera, and on his return to Salzburg in March he very quickly composed // Re pastore which was performed on 23 April, incredibly, he had already finished the first of the violin concertos that were to be his main achievement in 1775. Between April and December he wrote five (K.207, 211, 216, 218 and 219), and they were the only violin concertos he is known to have completed. At that time it was still usual for concertos and symphonies to be published in sets of six, and Mozart surely planned such a set, but he never finished, and perhaps never began No. 6. The others were not published until they appeared a century later in the Complete Works edition. it is just possible that what we have of the Concerto in D, K.271(i), was contrived from sketches Mozart made for his sixth concerto. It survives only in a dubious nineteenth-century copy of which the violin part was elaborated, it has been suggested, by the French violinist Baillot. The 'autograph' from which the copy was allegedly made is said to have been dated 16 July 1777, which seems too late for us to accept this concerto as one of the set. The first and third movements are so characterless as they survive, and the violin writing is sometimes so out-of-period, that the problem is of no great importance; only the charming slow movement is likelj' to give much pleasure today. About 1780 Mozart began a concerto in E flat, 1C.268, of which he seems to have scored the opening orchestral tutti and sketched the remainder of the first movement. After his death the work was completed without inspiration by a young Munich violinist, Johann Friedrich Eck, and it was published by André about 1800. In addition to the full-length works so far mentioned, Mozart composed for an Italian violinist called Brunetti four single movements for violin and orchestra, one of which is lost. The three that survive were published by André about 1800. Two were replacements for movements in Mozart's own concertos, and the other for a movement in a concerto by some other composer (the Rondo in C of 1781, K.373). There were several violinists at this period named Brunetti, and Einstein^ thought that Mozart had in mind Gaetano Brunetti who worked mainly in Madrid with Boccherini. But O. E. Deutsch^ convincingly suggested Antonio Brunetti, who was a member of the Salzburg orchestra and who succeeded Mozart as its leader. In 1776 he persuaded Mozart to write a new Finale for K.207 and a new slow movement for K.219. Mozart may well have written all the completed concertos with Brunetti in mind, though he doubtless played them himself in his capacity as orchestral director at Salzburg. But the comparative ease of the solo parts suggests that he was thinking mainly of publication and performers of less-than-astonishing virtuosity. It is remarkable that the three best concertos all end quietly without any positive gesture to promote applause. 'Einstein, A., Mozart: his Character and his Works {Oxford, 1945.) 2Deutsch, O. E., Mozart: Die Dokuniente seines Lebens (Kassel, 1961.)