Klarinet Archive - Posting 000471.txt from 1996/01

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Sinfonie concertante
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 10:50:31 -0500

Vince Deluise has written a couple of really terrific notes on the
Sinfonie Concertante. But he leaves a perception that the presence
of a work in the Anhang (the Appendix) necessarily invalidates its
authenticity. Not so.

When Koechel made up his catalog in 1862, there were about a dozen
pieces of which he knew but could find not trace of. No music had
survived, nothing. Knowledge of these works derived from letters
which would reference their composition and even their performances,
but not a single shred of music could be found for these compositions.

These one dozen works got the first one dozen numbers in the Anhang.
I think Anhang 5 (meaning the 5th work referenced in the appendix)
was the ballet music from "Les Petits Riens" and the Anhang 9
was a concerto for multiple instruments and orchestra (the official
title of which was a "Sinfonie Concertante") that was for flute,
oboe, horn, bassoon, and orchestra.

Nothing was known about this work except for the fact that several
letters of Mozart to his father make reference to it. He describes
how he got the commission, how he wrote it, the very names of the
players for whom he wrote it, and then the disaster when the work
was pulled off the program where it was supposed to be played. He
mentions that he found the autograph score in the office of the
the head of the concert series where the work was supposed to be
played, and he even comments on the fact that he had a conversation
with this man asking him "Why the score has not been sent out to have
parts made from it?". He also says in another letter that the four
soloists just love it.

But not one shred of music ever survived and Koechel put the work
in the Anhang. But that such a work existed cannot be doubted given
the documentary evidence.

So the fact that it bears the listing of K. Anhang 9 does not mean
that the composition is not genuine.

For another day there is the issue of what is the work that today
is called the Sinfonie Concertante, Anhang 9 (also sometimes called
K. 297b)???

But my most recent question still stands. For the many of you who
have played the work, is there nothing about the clarinet writing
that you find stylistically strange? You have played the quintet,
the concerto, the Kegelstatt, the piano quintet, etc. Is the
clarinet writing in these pieces consistent with the clarinet writing
in the concertante? Could the same man have done both?

I leave you with the following problem: there was a Sinfonie Concertante
by Mozart for flute, oboe, horn, bassoon, and orchestra. There is
today a Sinfonie Concertante that, for almost a century, was suggested
to be by Mozart though its authority is now under attack. This other
Sinfonie Concertante is for clarinet, oboe, horn, bassoon and
orchestra.

Are these two compositions the same piece?

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
====================================

   
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