Horn Concerto No. 2 (Mozart)

Horn Concerto No. 2
by W. A. Mozart
The composer in 1782
KeyE♭ major
CatalogueK. 417
Composed1783 (1783)
DedicationJoseph Leutgeb
Movements3
ScoringSolo horn and orchestra

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 2 in E♭ major, K. 417, was completed in 1783.

The concerto is scored for solo horn and an orchestra of two oboes, two horns, and strings. This is one of two horn concertos of Mozart to omit bassoons.[1] It is also one of Mozart's two horn concertos to have ripieno horns (horns included in the orchestra besides the soloist), though in contrast to Horn Concerto No. 4, K. 495, the solo horn in this one does not duplicate the first ripieno horn's part in the tutti passages.[2]

Mozart's good-natured ribbing of his friend, hornist Joseph Leutgeb for whom this and other works were written, is evident in the manuscript's inscription "W. A. Mozart took pity on Leitgeb, ass, ox and fool in Vienna on 27 May 1783."[3]

Structure

The work is in three movements:[4]

  1. Allegro maestoso
  2. Andante (B♭ major)
  3. Rondo (Più allegro) 6
    8

Discography

Given its duration (no more than 20 minutes), the concerto is often grouped with Mozart's other three horn concertos. The foremost example[5] is Dennis Brain's November 1953 recording of the four horn concertos on EMI with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan.

References

  1. ↑ Martha Kingdon Ward, "Mozart and the Bassoon", Music & Letters 30, 1 (1949): 9
  2. ↑ Ralph Leavis, "Mozart's Last Horn Concerto" Music & Letters 34, 4 (1953): 316
  3. ↑ Andrew Steptoe, Mozart. New York: Alfred A. Knopf (1997): 94
  4. ↑ Jean-Pierre Marty, The Tempo Indications of Mozart. New Haven & London: Yale University Press (1988): 43. "The very absence of sixteenths is also an incentive towards overly fast tempos, and this is why the finales of the Horn Concertos K. 386b, 417 and 447 are almost always performed faster than 88/264. Yet, the finale of K. 417 ends with a coda marked Più allegro, and the finale of the fourth horn concerto (K. 495), though very similar in style to the other three, is marked Allegro vivace."
  5. ↑ The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music (1988), p. 679
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