Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

Verk

Serenader och divertimenti för blåsare

K 166 | K 186 | K 188 | K 213 | K 240 | K 252 | K 253 | K 270 | K 289 | K 361 | K 375 | K 388 | K 410 | K 411 | K 439b | K 487 | K 580a | K App 226 | K App 226 

A Rich and Varied Legacy
Mozart’s Music for Wind Ensemble

Mozart wrote a huge amount of what can best be described as “entertainment” music: music that was not intended to be listened to seriously in a concert room, theatre or church, but as an agreeable background to eating, drinking and conversation on celebratory or other social occasions, often in the open air. Most of it dates from the earlier part of his career, while he was based in his native city of Salzburg and in the service of its Archbishop, rather than during his years as a freelance musician in Vienna (from 1781 until his death in 1791), and it falls into three main categories: music for orchestra, music for chamber groups of about half-a-dozen players, and music for wind ensemble. (Mozart’s huge quantity of dance music is a rather different matter, since it was meant to be danced to, not merely heard.)

It is with the third of these groups that this album is concerned. No composer of music for wind instruments, either as soloists or as members of an ensemble, has ever equalled Mozart’s instinctive sense of their individual tonal characteristics, and none has left the player (and the listener) a richer or more varied legacy. He wrote at least one concerto (in some cases more) for each of the four principal members of the woodwind family and their honoured colleague, the French horn, and numerous chamber works in which a wind instrument holds the position of primus inter pares, and the majority of them still occupy a distinguished position in the concert hall and recital repertoire. Less often played in public, but no less treasured and loved by the musicians who know it, is the large body of music for wind ensemble, which ranges from unassuming divertimentos to full-scale serenades for combinations of anything between three and 13 instruments. Throughout much of the eighteenth century, and into the early decades of the nineteenth, discerning royalty and aristocrats in central Europe would maintain a Harmonie, or wind ensemble (usually of six or eight musicians: pairs of oboes, cors anglais, clarinets, horns and bassoons, in various combinations), whose main function was to perform Tafelmusik: background music during dinner. Mozart himself provided a modest example of such an occasion in the supper scene in Act II of “Don Giovanni” (1787), and in Act II Scene 4 of “Così fan tutte” (1789-90) the wind section of the orchestra is used by the disguised Ferrando and Guglielmo to serenade Fiordiligi and Dorabella. The music for wind ensemble that Mozart composed during his Salzburg years is, in effect, Tafelmusik, but this could hardly be said of the three great serenades of his early Vienna years (K. 361, 375 and 388), which, although they are in the Tafelmusik tradition, far transcend its modest aspirations. The remaining works, for smaller combinations, also date from the Vienna years, but were intended for Masonic functions or for domestic music-making, rather than for princely or public consumption.

Divertimento in B flat major, K. 186 (K. 159b)

for 2 oboes, 2 cors anglais, 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons
1. Allegro assai
2. Menuetto
3. Andante
4. Adagio
5. Allegro

Divertimento in E flat major, K. 166 (K. 159d)

for 2 oboes, 2 cors anglais, 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons
1. Allegro
2. Menuetto
3. Andante grazioso
4. Adagio
5. Allegro

These are Mozart’s earliest surviving pieces for wind ensemble. K. 166 in E flat is inscribed “Salzburg, 24 March 1773”, and its companion, K. 186 in B flat, is thought to date from a week or two earlier, and may even have been begun before he left Milan on 4 March, at the end of his third and last visit to Italy (which had been occasioned by the production of his opera “Lucio Silla” in Milan in December 1772). Both are scored for pairs of oboes, clarinets, cors anglais, horns and bassoons and are similarly laid out: often, because of doubling, in only two or three real parts, and with the two bassoons playing in unison throughout. Both divertimentos (the title, as with all the Salzburg wind pieces, is not in Mozart’s own hand) comprise an Allegro, a minuet (with a more lightly scored trio), an Andante, an Adagio, and a concluding rondo; both include quotations from Mozart’s sketches for the ballet “Le gelosie del Serraglio”, K. App. 109 (K. 135a), possibly written in Milan late in 1772; and the Andante grazioso of K. 166 is an almost exact transcription of the central Andantino of a three-movement symphony by Paisiello that may have been used as the overture to his opera “Sismano nel Mogol”, which Mozart saw in Milan on 30 January 1773. The inclusion of clarinets in both divertimentos indicates that they were not written for Salzburg, where clarinets were not available; they were presumably composed in response to an Italian commission, possibly from Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany (later Emperor Leopold II).

Divertimento in C major, K. 188 (K. 240b)

for 2 flutes, 5 trumpets and timpani
1. Andante
2. Allegro
3. Menuetto
4. Andante
5. Menuetto
6. Gavotte

This is one of a pair of “divertimenti” (the other is K. 187/159c, also in C) scored for the unusual (if not unique) combination of two flutes, five trumpets (three in C, two in D) and four timpani (in C and G, D and A). They probably date from the summer of 1773, and were presumably intended for some outdoor military ceremony in Salzburg. K. 187 (in ten movements) has been shown to be an arrangement of short pieces from Gluck’s opera “Paride e Elena” and from ballets by Joseph Starzer, and not by Mozart at all. In the absence of any evidence that the six movements (the third and fifth minuets, the sixth a gavotte) of K. 188 are the work of another musician or musicians, the piece is still presumed to be by Mozart; the interest lies as much in its curious instrumentation as in its rather slender musical content.

Divertimento in E flat major, K. App. 226 (C 17.01)

for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons
1. Allegro moderato
2. Menuetto
3. Romance (Adagio ma un poco andante)
4. Menuetto (Allegretto)
5. Rondo (Andante – Allegro)

Divertimento in B flat major, K. App. 227 (C 17.02)

for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 horns and 2 bassoons
1. Allegro
2. Menuetto
3. Adagio
4. Menuetto
5. Finale (Andantino)

The instrumental parts of these two divertimentos for wind octet (pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons) were acquired in 1800 by the publishing house of Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig from Mozart’s early biographer Franz Xaver Niemetschek of Prague, but despite the assurance with which the instruments are handled, various formal features (such as the static harmonic scheme of the development section in the first movement of K. App. 226 and the simple binary form of the first movement of K. App. 227) are uncharacteristic of Mozart, and this is why they were relegated to the appendix of Köchel’s Thematic Catalogue of 1862. Alfred Einstein, however, was convinced of their authenticity, and in his 1937 revision of the Catalogue he reinstated them as K. 196e and K. 196f, suggesting that Mozart composed them in Munich shortly after the production there of his opera “La finta giardiniera” (13 January 1775). Both are in five movements, the second and fourth being minuets; K. App. 227 also exists in a version without oboes.

Divertimento in F major, K. 213

for 2 oboes, 2 horns and 2 bassoons
1. Allegro spiritoso
2. Andante
3. Menuetto
4. Contredanse en Rondeau (Molto allegro)

Divertimento in B flat major, K. 240

for 2 oboes, 2 horns and 2 bassoons
1. Allegro
2. Andante grazioso
3. Menuetto
4. Allegro

Divertimento in E flat major, K. 252 (K. 240a)

for 2 oboes, 2 horns and 2 bassoons
1. Andante
2. Menuetto
3. Polonaise (Andante)
4. Presto assai

Divertimento in F major, K. 253

for 2 oboes, 2 horns and 2 bassoons
1. Tema con variazioni (Andante)
2. Menuetto
3. Allegro assai

Divertimento in B flat major, K. 270

for 2 oboes, 2 horns and 2 bassoons
1. Allegro molto
2. Andantino
3. Menuetto (Moderato)
4. Presto

Divertimento in E flat major, K. 289 (K. 271g)

for 2 oboes, 2 horns and 2 bassoons
1. Adagio – Allegro
2. Menuetto
3. Adagio
4. Finale (Presto)

The first five of these six divertimentos for wind sextet (pairs of oboes, horns and bassoons) are believed (though without any positive evidence) to have been composed as Tafelmusik for the Archbishop of Salzburg, and they seem to have been specifically intended for either summer or winter use. K. 213 is dated July 1775, K. 240 January 1776; K. 252 is not dated but is ascribed to the first half of 1776; K. 253 is dated July 1776, and K. 270 January 1777. K. 289 survives only in nineteenth-century copyists’ scores and parts but was long believed to belong to the five Salzburg sextets of 1775-77, on the rather unlikely assumption that Mozart was planning to publish them as a set of half-a-dozen; in more recent years, however, its authenticity has been seriously questioned, on grounds comparable to those affecting K. App. 226 and App. 227, and it is now generally believed to be the work of a gifted, but minor, contemporary of Mozart’s.

The five unquestionably authentic divertimentos, all of them beautifully laid out for the six instruments, are subtly differentiated. Apart from the statutory minuet (placed third in K. 213, K. 240 and K. 270, second in K. 252 and K. 253) there is a variety of movements in dance rhythms: K. 213 ends with a “Contredanse en rondeau”; the third movement of K. 252 is a polonaise; and K. 270 has, as its second movement, an Andantino in gavotte style and, as its finale, a brisk gigue. In place of the normal opening sonata-form Allegro (most developed in K. 270), K. 252 begins with an Andante in 6/8 siciliano metre, and K. 253 (the only one in three, rather than four, movements) with a theme and six variations. The concluding Presto assai of K. 252 makes use of the Austrian popular song “Die Katze lässt das Mausen nicht” (The cat won’t leave the mouse alone). The questionable K. 289 has four movements, with the minuet placed second and with an introductory Adagio prefacing the first Allegro.

Serenade in E flat major, K. 375

for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and 2 horns
1. Allegro maestoso
2. Menuetto
3. Adagio
4. Menuetto
5. Finale (Allegro)

The most substantial of Mozart’s wind pieces are the three serenades he completed in the early 1780’s soon after he had left Salzburg and settled in Vienna: K. 375 in E flat (1781-82) and K. 388 (K. 384a) in C minor (1782), both scored for two oboes, two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons, and K. 361 (K. 370a) in B flat, scored for two oboes, two clarinets, two basset horns, four horns, two bassoons and string bass (traditionally thought to have been composed – or at least begun – early in 1781, while Mozart was in Munich for the first production of his opera “Idomeneo”, K. 366, but now believed to date from as late as 1784). The Serenade in E flat, K. 375 was composed in the autumn of 1781, and was originally scored for two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons. On 3 November Mozart wrote to his father in Salzburg: “Please forgive me for not having acknowledged by the last post the receipt of the cadenzas, for which I thank you most submissively. It happened to be my name-day [31 October], so I performed my devotions in the morning and, just as I was going to write to you, a whole crowd of congratulating friends literally besieged me. At 12 o’clock I drove out to Baroness Waldstädten at Leopoldstadt, where I spent my name-day. At 11 o’clock at night I was treated to a serenade performed by two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons – and that too of my own composition – for I wrote it for St. Theresa’s Day [15 October], for Frau von Hickel’s sister, or rather the sister-in-law of Herr von Hickel, court painter, at whose house it was performed for the first time. The six gentlemen who executed it are poor beggars who, however, play quite well together, particularly the first clarinet and the two horns. But the chief reason why I composed it was in order to let Herr von Strack [Chamberlain to the Emperor Joseph II], who goes there every day, hear something of my composition; so I wrote it rather carefully. It has won great applause too, and on St. Theresa’s Night it was performed in three different places; for as soon as they finished playing it in one place, they were taken off somewhere else and payed to play it. Well these musicians asked that the street door might be opened and, placing themselves in the centre of the courtyard, surprised me, just as I was about to undress, in the most pleasant fashion imaginable with the chord of E flat.”

It would be difficult to imagine a more delightful musical greeting (or, for that matter, a more colourful version of the chord of E flat). In July 1782 Mozart rewrote the serenade for wind octet, adding a pair of oboes, removing both repeats in the first movement, adding two final chords to the slow movement, and making a slight expansion (from 210 bars to 217) and some changes of figuration in the finale; it may also have been for this revision of the work that he started writing a march (K. 384b), which unfortunately he abandoned after only four bars.

What makes the initial chord of E flat so interesting is the fact that it is extended for 24 bars, to form the basis of a prelude that is both dynamically and harmonically arresting, and imparts to the whole movement an air of solemnity and breadth. This passage is technically the first subject, but it has more the feeling of a slow introduction. It is followed by a lively transition that prepares the way for a second subject in two distinct sections, the first of them (presented by the first clarinet) in the dominant minor key. There is a long closing section featuring runs for the clarinets and bassoons in thirds. The development (which begins with a reference to the “introduction”) is correspondingly short, and is concerned predominantly with the first part of the second subject – which, in the recapitulation, is replaced by a new theme on the first horn, briefly foreshadowed in the closing pages of the exposition. The solemn “introduction” returns yet again in the coda.

The second movement is a terse but festive minuet (still in E flat, as are all five movements of the serenade), with a much more extended trio, in C minor and full of crunching suspensions. It is separated from the second minuet – a lighter, more genial movement, with a warm, lilting trio in A flat – by a lyrical Adagio in condensed sonata form (that is to say without a development section as such), which is remarkable for the richness of its scoring and for the variety of colour that Mozart introduces after the recapitulation. The finale is a rondo, with a breezy refrain and a second subject (introduced by the first clarinet) of unexpected subtlety, which is repeated in the tonic key towards the end of the development – begun in fugato style with the upward arpeggio that starts the transition between refrain and second subject – and therefore omitted from the shortened recapitulation.

Serenade in C minor, K. 388 (K. 384a) ”Nacht Musique”

for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and 2 horns
1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Menuetto in canone
4. Allegro

The most striking and dramatic of Mozart’s three great wind serenades is the one in C minor. It is possibly the work he referred to in a letter he wrote to his father on 27 July 1782 saying “You will be surprised and disappointed to find that this contains only the first Allegro [of the second ‘Haffner’ Serenade, subsequently adapted as the ‘Haffner’ Symphony, No. 35 in D], for I have had to compose in a great hurry a Nacht Musique, but only for wind instruments (otherwise I could have used it for you too)”; but it is at least equally possible that he was referring to the octet version of K. 375, or even his adaptation for Harmonie of music from his opera ”Die Entführung aus dem Serail” (1781-82). Of the person or the occasion for which he wrote K. 388 (which he originally entitled “Parthia”, later changing this to “Serenada”) we know nothing, and we can only try to imagine the astonishment with which its first audience must have listened to this highly charged and most un-serenade-like of all serenades. That Mozart was conscious of its quite exceptional qualities is suggested by the fact that in 1788 he transcribed it for string quintet (K.406 (K. 516b)).

In addition to being more serious in musical content, K. 388 is more concise and more concentrated than either of its immediate companions. K. 375 has five movements, K. 361 seven; K. 388 has only four – which in itself almost amounts to a negation of the serenade/divertimento principle. The first subject of the initial Allegro is a complex of five distinct thematic ideas, the most important of which is the drooping diminished seventh heard in bars 13 and 15, which acts as a “motto” common to all four movements and plays a crucial part in the development section of this impassioned Allegro – as does the hammering rhythm of the transition. The second subject, a gentle, curving tune introduced by the oboe, is cast in E flat major in the exposition but in C minor after the recapitulation (when its outIine is substantially altered). The slow movement is a sonata-form Andante in E flat major, whose principal theme, with its suspensions and stabbing accents, incorporates in its seventh bar the diminished seventh “motto”. The solemnity of this theme is set off by the urbane, serenade-like quality of the second subject and its derivatives.

The contrapuntal severity of the “Menuetto in canone” invites comparison with the parallel movement in the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550. The minuet itself, as its title implies, is predominantIy – though not exclusively – canonic in texture (the “motto” appears in the second half, when the theme reappears in expanded form). The soothing C major trio, for oboes and bassoons only, is in canone al rovescio, that is to say with the second entry answering the preceding one upside-down. The choice of variation form for the finale offers a premonition of another minor-key masterpiece: the Piano Concerto in C minor, K. 491. The theme itself, spare, economical and sombre, is succeeded by four masterly variations in the tonic key – the last of them “double”, with its own variation in each half, rather than a straight repeat. The relative major key of E flat, heralded by a horn-call that has another, later echo – in the sextet in Act II of “Don Giovanni” – provides an interlude of complete contrast. C minor is, however, reasserted in two more “double” variations, the first of which has the flavour of a recapitulation; but at last Mozart makes his concession to the shattered expectations of his audience, in a final version of the theme in a triumphant C major.

Serenade in B flat major, K. 361 (K. 370a) “Gran Partita”

for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 basset horns, 4 horns, 2 bassoons and double-bass
1. Largo – Allegro molto
2. Menuetto – Trio I-II
3. Adagio
4. Menuetto (Allegretto) – Trio I-II
5. Romanze (Adagio - Allegretto - Adagio)
6. Thema mit Variationen (Andante)
7. Finale (Molto allegro)

The “Wienerblättchen” of 23 March 1784 carried the following announcement: “Today Herr Stadler senior, at present in the service of His Majesty the Emperor, will give a musical academy for his benefit in the Imperial Royal National Court Theatre, at which, among other well chosen pieces, a large wind work of a very special kind composed by Herr Mozart will be performed.” That this was the Serenade in B flat, K. 361, the biggest and most ambitious of all Mozart’s works for wind ensemble, is proved beyond reasonable doubt by a reference to the same concert in Johann Friedrich Schink’s “Litterarische Fragmente” (published in Graz in 1785): “Today I also heard music for wind instruments, viz. four Corni, two Oboi, two Fagotti, two Clarinetti, two Basset-Corni, one Contre-Violon, and at each instrument sat a master – oh what an effect it made – glorious and grand, excellent and sublime!”

There can be no confusing the work Schink was referring to, even though he only heard four of its seven movements. It is also inconceivable that Mozart would have composed a work of such complexity and one so elaborately scored (with, in addition to the basic pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons, a second pair of horns crooked in a different key so as to provide greater harmonic flexibility , and a string bass to give a solid foundation) except for a very special occasion, such as a benefit concert for an eminent musician like Anton Stadler, clarinettist in the Hoftheater in Vienna and in Emperor Joseph II’s Harmonie. This would seem to invalidate the traditional theory that Mozart composed this great serenade while he was in Munich during the winter of 1780-81 supervising the rehearsals and production of “Idomeneo”. If this is so the Serenade in B flat is later in date than either of its octet companions, K. 375 and K. 388, of 1781-82, and its position in the Köchel catalogue should be in the 450’s; it is indeed his crowning achievement in the field of Harmoniemusik.

It should be mentioned that examination of Mozart’s autograph score, which remained in private hands until it was acquired by the Library of Congress in Washington in 1942 and was published for the first time (in the “Neue Mozart-Ausgabe”) as recently as 1979, reveals not only that the date “1780” and the heading “gran Partitta” are not in Mozart’s hand, but that the old printed editions, stemming from a pirated one issued in Vienna in 1803, are littered with inaccurate marks of phrasing and dynamics and a large number of actual wrong notes; it also shows that Mozart specified the contrabbasso as the lowest instrument of the ensemble, and not the unmanageable and unreliable double bassoon of his day.

The first movement is unusual for two reasons: because it is prefaced by a dignified slow introduction (in which the primacy of the first clarinet is subtly but unmistakably stressed) and because, Haydn-like, its second subject is no more than an extension of the first. As though to compensate for this the “development” is based largely on new material, and the recapitulation is full of deft changes in instrumental layout. The first minuet is commanding and compliant by turns; the first of its two trios, in E flat, is a quartet for clarinets and basset horns; the second, in G minor, is without clarinets and the first pair of horns and is pervaded by dotted rhythms and triplets. It is followed by a ternary-form Adagio in E flat, more eloquent even than its counterparts in K. 375 and K. 388, in which the first oboe, clarinet and basset horn, in turn, discourse, as expressively as if they were singers in a terzetto, above a slow-moving bass-line and a halting, syncopated accompaniment on the other instruments (the second pair of horns is silent throughout).

The second minuet is more extrovert than the first, although there is still an alternation of forte and piano. Again there are two trios: the first in B flat minor and with canonic tendencies; the second in F major and with only the first pair of horns, a guileless Ländler. The fifth movement, also with only two horns, is a “Romance”, a ternary-form movement with a contrasting middle section: here a gentle Adagio in E flat framing an agitated Allegretto in C minor. Next comes a theme with six variations, notable for its richly variegated textures, especially those of its fifth variation (Adagio), with its undulating clarinets and basset horns (Mozart apparently based this movement on the second in the Quartet in C for flute and string trio, K. 285b, which perhaps dates from the early 1780’s – but transformed it almost beyond recognition in the process). The finale is an ebullient rondo with two episodes, based on a refrain that is curiously reminiscent of the one in the last movement of Mozart’s early four-hand Sonata in C, K. 19d, of 1765.

Works with Basset Horns:
Adagio in B flat major, K. 411 (K. 484a)

for 2 clarinets and 3 basset horns

Adagio in F major, K. 410 (K. 484d)

for 2 basset horns and bassoon

Adagio in C major, K. App. 94 (K. 580a)

for clarinet and 3 basset horns

These and other fragmentary pieces featuring basset horns probably resulted from Mozart’s friendship with the clarinettists Anton David, Vincent Springer, and with Anton Stadler and his younger brother Johann; all were Freemasons, and Anton Stadler (who was a specialist in the basset horn and other experimental clarinets with extensions that increased the standard instrument’s downward range) was a member of Mozart’s lodge, “Zur Wohltätigkeit” (Charity), and it is likely that some of these pieces, at least, have some connection with Masonic ritual. K. 411, in B flat, is scored for two clarinets and three basset horns, and is a work of some stature and substance; K. 410 in F, scored for two basset horns and bassoon, is, by contrast, a short (27 bar), intimate piece, in which the basset horns play throughout in mirror canon at the fifth, above a freely moving bass. Both works are believed to date from late 1785, and a similar date is now assigned, with less certainty, to K. App. 94, a sonata-form Adagio for the second half of which Mozart sketched out the melodic line only, and for whose four parts he gave no indications as to instrumentation. The piece has been completed and edited several times during the last 30 or so years, scored for such combinations as cor anglais, two horns/basset horns/clarinets and bassoon, and cor anglais, two basset horns and bassoon, but the most likely combination is for clarinet and three basset horns.

Divertimento in B flat, K. App. 229 (K. 439b) No. 1

for 3 basset horns
1. Allegro
2. Menuetto
3. Adagio
4. Menuetto
5. Rondo (Allegro)

Divertimento in B flat, K. App. 229 (K. 439b) No. 2

for 3 basset horns
1. Allegro
2. Menuetto
3. Larghetto
4. Menuetto
5. Rondo

Divertimento in B flat, K. App. 229 (K. 439b) No. 3

for 3 basset horns 1. Allegro
2. Menuetto
3. Adagio
4. Menuetto
5. Rondo (Allegro assai)

Divertimento in B flat, K. App. 229 (K. 439b) No. 4

for 3 basset horns
1. Allegro
2. Larghetto
3. Menuetto
4. Adagio
5. Rondo (Allegretto)

Divertimento in B flat, K. App. 229 (K. 439b) No. 5

for 3 basset horns
1. Adagio
2. Menuetto
3. Adagio
4. Polonaise
5. Romanze (Andante)

The first reference to these “divertimentos” is to be found in a letter that Mozart’s widow Constanze wrote on 31 May 1800 to the publisher Johann Anton André in Offenbach, in which she wrote: “One should speak to the clarinettist Stadler senior about such matters. He had several original works, and copies of some still unknown trios for basset horns.” Although no autograph scores exist, the authenticity of these trios, first published in 1803 by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig and in about 1806 by Simrock in Bonn, is not in question, although the precise instrumentation (two clarinets and bassoon, two basset horns and bassoon, or, as now seems certain, three basset horns) was disputed for many years. They are clearly related to the six Notturni for two sopranos and bass, with three basset horns or two clarinets and basset horn, K. 436-439, 346 (439a) and 549, which Mozart wrote for musical gatherings at the house of his friend Gottfried von Jacquin. In the old Complete Edition of Mozart’s works published by Breitkopf & Härtel between 1875 and 1905 they were relegated to the Supplement and printed as divertimentos in B flat for two clarinets and bassoon; in the relevant volume of the “Neue Mozart-Ausgabe”, issued in 1975, however, they are printed, following the wording of the Breitkopf & Härtel catalogue of 1803, as “XXV Pieces (Five Divertimentos)” for three basset horns, written in C but sounding in F, the normal transposing key of the basset horn. The first four divertimentos all follow a similar five-movement pattern: a sonata-form Allegro; a minuet; a slow movement (Adagio or Larghetto): a second minuet; and a concluding rondo; the fifth comprises an Adagio, a minuet, another Adagio, a romance and a polonaise: a sequence that Mozart would certainly never have planned, and which may imply a publisher’s random concatenation of movements that Mozart may possibly have intended for two divertimentos, thereby making the set up to a neat half-dozen. (A sixth “divertimento”, not by Mozart himself, consists of arrangements of numbers from “Figaro” and “Don Giovanni”.)

Twelve Duos, K. 487 (K. 496a)

for 2 horns
No. 1 Allegro
No. 2 Menuetto (Allegretto)
No. 3 Andante
No. 4 Polonaise
No. 5 Larghetto
No. 6 Menuetto
No. 7 Adagio
No. 8 Allegro
No. 9 Menuetto
No. 10 Andante
No. 11 Menuetto
No. 12 Allegro

Three (Nos. 1, 3 and 6) of these short, single-movement duos exist in Mozart’s hand on two sheets of manuscript paper (in parts, not score), inscribed “Vienna, 27 July 1786, during a game of skittles”, but without any indication as to instrumentation. All 12 were published (again, in parts, not score) by Imbault in Paris some time after 1794, as “12 pieces for two horns composed by W.A. Mozart, Op. 46”. In the old Complete Edition Nos. 1, 3 and 6 were included among works for two and three stringed instruments as a three-movement duo for two violins, despite an editorial admission that at one point (the last three bars of the minuet, No. 6) the part for the second player descends well below the violin’s range; and all 12 were included in the Supplement (“Recently discovered, unauthenticated and unfinished works”) as Duos for two basset horns, with the assertion that these were the only kind of horn (!) for which the works could have been intended. In fact, close study of the three duos known to be by Mozart, and of the other nine, proves that, although technically extremely demanding, especially for the first player, they were perfectly playable on the natural horn of Mozart’s day; the fact that certain notes that were not possible or not effective on that instrument were avoided is a strong argument against the theory that they were designed for basset horns, which were fully chromatic even in Mozart’s day. The likely explanation is that the Twelve Duos originated at a game of skittles at which Mozart was in the company of his old friend Joseph Ignaz Leutgeb (for whom he wrote at least six concertos) and one or two other virtuoso horn players, such as Karl or Johann Türrschmidt, who may also have had a hand in the composition of the nine pieces for which no autograph survives.

Robin Golding