Violin Concertos (Mozart)

Five violin concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have survived that are considered authentic ( KV 207, KV 211, KV 216, KV 218, KV 219). With two others (KV 268 and KV 271i) it is uncertain whether they came from Mozart's pen. Mozart also composed three individual movements for violin and orchestra (Adagio KV 261, Rondo KV 269, Rondo KV 373). The so-called Adélaide Concerto (at times performed as KV Anh. 294a) in D major was supposedly composed in 1766 by the ten-year-old Mozart in Versailles, but is an arrangement of Mozart fragments by Marius Casadesus , who first performed it in 1931 and in 1933 with the wrong attribution published.

Violin Concerto No. 1 in B flat major KV 207 (1773)

Accompaniment: 2 violins, viola, bass, 2 oboes, 2 horns

1. Allegro moderato
2. adagio
3. Presto

This violin concerto was written in the spring of 1773 on Mozart's trip to Italy; it was completed on April 14, 1773.

Beginning of the first movement:

Beginning of the second movement:

Beginning of the third movement:

Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major KV 211 (1775)

Accompaniment: 2 violins, viola, bass, 2 oboes, 2 horns

1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante
3. Rondeau. Allegro

Beginning of the first movement:

Beginning of the second movement:

Beginning of the third movement:

Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major KV 216 (1775)

Accompaniment: 2 violins, viola, bass, 2 oboes (2 flutes), 2 horns

1. Allegro
2. adagio
3. Rondeau. Allegro

The Mozart biographer Alfred Einstein writes about this work, which Mozart composed at the age of 19: If there is one miracle in Mozart's work, it is the origin of this concert.

Beginning of the first movement:

Beginning of the second movement:

Beginning of the third movement:

Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major KV 218 (1775)

Accompaniment: 2 violins, viola, bass, 2 oboes, 2 horns

1. Allegro
2. Andante cantabile
3. Rondeau. Andante grazioso

Beginning of the first movement:

Beginning of the second movement:

Beginning of the third movement:

Third movement, from measure 14:

Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major KV 219 (1775)

Accompaniment: 2 violins, viola, bass, 2 oboes, 2 horns

1. Allegro aperto
2. adagio
3. Rondeau. Tempo di menuetto

Beginning of the first movement:

Beginning of the second movement:

Beginning of the third movement:

In the middle of the third movement, the three-four time of the minuet changes to two-four time, and "Turkish music" is played , with a key change from A major to A minor, similar to the rondo alla turca in the piano sonata in A major .

Violin Concerto No. 6 in E flat major, K. 268 (doubtful) (1780)

Accompaniment: 2 violins, viola, bass, 1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns

1. Allegro moderato
2. Un poco adagio
3. Rondo. Allegretto

Note on KV 268

In the 1980s, Dieter Klöcker acquired sheet music from the estate of clarinetist Kurt Rauschenbach and discovered - to his surprise - a solo part that went well with Violin Concerto No. 6 in E flat major. It was entitled: " Divertimento per il clarinetto e piano forte" . Only the discovery of this old - copied - solo clarinet part showed that the work must have existed in a more skilful form - before the edition by André. Girolamo Salieri is named as the author . Despite many pencil corrections and some errors, this version clearly fits the 6th Violin Concerto; and is often better formally, e.g. B. unnecessary repetitions of Tutti passages in III. Avoids sentence.

This fact prompted Dieter Klöcker to ask his friend Eberhard Buschmann to try a true-to-style reconstruction of KV 268 as a clarinet concerto in E flat major. This then happened in the 1990s, which was benevolently registered by the professional world. A CD of this was released by Dabringhaus and Grimm in 1998 with Klöcker as a soloist and the Prague Chamber Orchestra. In this revision, Buschmann tried to avoid additions that were alien to the style and to bring the work, which was unfortunately only imprecisely handed down, closer to Mozart's musical language.

In the CD texts, Klöcker explained in detail his hypotheses as to how this concert - and also the clarinet version - possibly came about.

Violin Concerto No. 7 in D major KV 271i (doubtful) (1777)

Accompaniment: 2 violins, viola, bass, 2 oboes, 2 horns

1. Allegro maestoso
2. Andante
3. Rondo. Allegro

This violin concerto has been preserved in two copies from the 19th century, which differ from each other, especially in the last movement. One of them comes from the circle of the Parisian violinist Eugène Baillot.

Single movements for violin and orchestra

Adagio in E major KV 261 (1776)

Accompaniment: 2 violins, viola, bass, 2 flutes, 2 horns

Mozart wrote this Adagio for the violinist Antonio Brunetti (1744–1786), Mozart's successor as court musician in Salzburg under Hieronymus von Colloredo , as a variant for the middle movement of the 5th violin concerto. Brunetti had complained that the original Adagio was "too artificial".

Rondo in B flat major KV 269 (1776)

Accompaniment: 2 violins, viola, bass, 2 oboes, 2 horns

Rondo in C major KV 373 (1781)

Accompaniment: 2 violins, viola, bass, 2 oboes, 2 horns

Mozart also wrote these two pieces for the Italian violinist Antonio Brunetti.

Web links

• Concerts for violin and orchestra : Score and critical report in the New Mozart Edition
• Violin Concerto KV 207 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
• Violin Concerto KV 211 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
• Violin Concerto KV 216 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
• Violin Concerto KV 218 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
• Violin Concerto KV 219 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project

Footnotes

1. ↑ MUSIC: Blues in D . In: Der Spiegel . tape July 31 , 1977 ( spiegel.de [accessed February 22, 2018]).
2. ↑ It used to be wrongly believed that Mozart had written all five violin concertos within a few months in 1775 and had made amazing progress in the process