Horn Concerto No. 1 in D Major, K. 412 + 514
For horn with 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, and strings
[In the Rondo, bassoons are ad libitum and can double the cello-bass line.]
Allegro
Rondo: Allegro
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
This concerto, like Mozart's other three horn concertos, was written for the virtuoso Joseph Leutgeb. It was for Leutgeb that Haydn is thought to have written his horn concerto decades earlier. He had known the child Mozart and his father when he worked in Salzburg, and after moving to Vienna, he became a good friend of Wolfgang as an adult. As part of their relationship, Mozart would tease Leutgeb mercilessly, even in the music as he wrote comments in the score: "For you, Mr. Ass," "come on, quick, get on with it," "a sheep could trill like that," "are you finished yet?"
Although this is numbered as Mozart's first horn concerto, it is now known to be the last of his four concertos for the instrument. Having written an opening Allegro, Mozart began a Rondo finale in 1791, his final year, writing out the horn part for it and sketching some music for the strings. In 1792, the year after his death, his student Franz Xaver Süssmayr completed the Rondo, so that the concerto then had two movements but no slower middle movement. It is in that incomplete form that we know the concerto today. Oddly, Süssmayr's completion differs quite a bit from Mozart's sketch, even in the horn part that Mozart had left. One wonders, therefore, whether Süssmayr may never have seen the sketch and may have gotten earlier material from Leutgeb. In the revised Koechel numbering of Mozart’s works, the Rondo finale that was completed by Süssmayr was given its own number, K. 514, a later number than the first movement.
Boston Baroque Performances
Horn Concerto No. 1 in D Major, K. 412 + 514
July 10, 1983
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Early Music Festival, Indianapolis, IN
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
Jean Rife, natural horn
October 5, 1979
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloist:
Jean Rife, natural horn