A lost flute concerto by Mozart?

A lost flute concerto by Mozart?

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norman lebrecht

November 27, 2016

The Turkish flutist Şefika Kutluer is about to perform what is claimed to be a world premiere of Mozart’s ‘Wendling Concerto’, reported missing since the composer stayed with the Mannheim virtuoso Johann Baptist Wendling in 1777.

Kutluer believes she has identified the manuscript in a Swiss archive. She will perform it in Istanbul next week.

More here.

kutluer

Comments

  • James Strauss says:

    First of all, she did not Identify ANITHING , its my research, the manuscript its not in Swiss, She did even know this its in Sweeden, and its not a Mozart Concerto for Wendling , its a Wendling Conderto in D GUN 20, ( K.284e ) – wich Mozart put 2 oboes and 2 Horns , its part of a group of manuscrips I found , edited ( Togheter with the K. deest – The Concerto Mozart performed on July 26th 1777 by Cassel – MS in POLAND ) and the Grande Concertant KV 448 ( after the 2 pianos Sonata arranged by C.G. Menzel in 1827) .

    • Sasha says:

      Good that you corrected all this! This kind of sensationalism is so commonplace in the music business these days. Rare is the musician who actually makes discoveries in the archives himself, but when something is found by a musicologist for example, the first musician to perform it is quick to steal the spotlight…

      • Sue says:

        Found by a musicologist, you say? I thought they were redundant individuals who completed half-baked courses at university. Just look back through many of the comments here on SD.

    • Pamela Brown says:

      Thank you, James…

      • Wolfgang Amadeus Museart says:

        Mozart didn’t like the flute so this is not a suprise at all. And it is not the first time that musicologists did the work but “artists” got the “credit”.

  • Michael Lynn says:

    It would be wonderful to have a new flute concerto by Mozart – but as James Strauss notes – this isn’t one!!!

  • Tutti Mozart says:

    All about the concert in this video! “The mystery” of the KV 284e

    https://youtu.be/fq6gZI4zwUY

  • sl says:

    Is the manuscript shown in the video really Mozart’s arrangement? What proof is there? It is clearly not in his handwriting and anyone else could have added the parts for horn and oboes. Why for example can’t it be an arrangement made by someone from the Swedish orchestra to which the manuscript belonged (Lunds akademiska kapell, which exists since 1745)?
    Apart from that, Wendling’s concerto also still exists in its original form – for flute and strings, A contemporary copy can be found in the Bavarian State Library. It’s also online: http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0008/bsb00088448/images/

    • Tutti Mozart says:

      As you heard on the Video… It is a THEORY! There’s no way to proof it 100%. Because it is a theory. We have more proof that we’ll also present on the concert on the 2nd for the LIVE STREAMING. One other thing everyone is mistaken, Mozart NEVER said he arranged only the oboes and horns. This was a mistake by some Mozart specialists on the translation of the letters! Mozart writes that he had “ICH HABE DIE INSTRUMENTI GESETZ”. The instruments. This contemporary copy is also a MISTAKE! If you knew the music you would have seen that it is NOT the same music! It is a COMPLETELY different concert!

      Watch our concert on the 2nd and then judge us. =) Best wishes from Vienna!

      • sl says:

        Sorry, if you are right and the music of the Swedish manuscript is not the same as the copy of KV 284e from the Bavarian State Library, then the music found in Sweden may be just another (until now unknown) concert by Wendling with no Mozart connection at all. That Mozart never said that he just added oboe and horns to the music is clear to me. But the title page of the manuscript in the video shows parts for oboes and horns. Since I don’t know the music (is it online anywhere?) I was under the assumption that this is an arrangement of the Wendling concert which is preserved in the Bavarian State Library, Munich (parts only for flute and strings). At least, there must be a reason that the copy in Munich is clearly labelled under KV 284e. It might be worthwile to clear this mess before claiming any authenticity.
        What I would find even more interesting is to know how and when the Wendling concert (or the Mozart arrangement of it) came to Lund at all.

  • James Strauss says:

    Just to clarify :

    Johann Baptist Wendling – Wolfgang Amadè Mozart
    Concerto / per il / Flauto Traversiere Principale / violino 1mo / Violino 2do / Cornu 1mo et 2do / del Sig. Wendling / 1778 (KV 284e)
    10 parts – fl, vl 1, 2, vla, bc, b rip, ob 1, 2, cor 1, 2
    Copy: 1778 – Wilhelm Cramer, Christian Ernst Graf ( MEANING THEY COPY FROM THE ORIGINAL)

    I concluded that it is indeed the collaboration between Mozart and Wendling due to a letter he wrote to his father while in Mannheim, 22. November 1777:

    “heüt den 21:ten vormittag haben wir ihren brief von 17ten erhalten; ich war nicht zu haus, sondern beÿ Cannabich, wo der M:r wendling ein concert Probiert hat, zu welchen ich ihm die instrumenti gesezt habe…”

    1) The year scribed on the copy is 1778 and that give us a very small and reasonable window of 40 days between 22 November 1777 and 1778 – The other concerto composed just before its from 1777 and published in Paris – wich makes total sense because when Mozart meet Wendling he just arrived from a trip from Paris in November 1777 andhe published ther chez Madame Bérault, 1777 , in the same score they announce the Concerto n.4 in D , but until now we did not find the edition….

    2) The Instrumentation: Wendling composed 14 flute concertos between 1749 and 1781 – The only one who has the instrumentation used by Mozart – it’s the GUN 20 – 1778 the others are : Strings ( GUN 1,6,7,11,12,13,18,26) , Strings and 2 horns ( GUN 9,19,24) and Orchestra (strings, 2 oboes, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani) GUN 5 – The GUN 20 has exacletly 2 oboes, 2 horns and Strings as usesd by Mozart until 1778.

    3) Quotations : There are a couple of small passages in the 1st movement of GUN 20 that contain hints of Mozart – Wendling: bars 11-12 (same again at bars 45-46, 149-150) / (similar to) Mozart’s flute quartet in D major (K.285), 1st movement, bars 120-121, and bars 54-57 / (similar to) Mozart’s flute concerto in D major (K.314), 1st movement, bars 35-38….

    • sl says:

      Thanks for clarifying. It is much easier to follow the reasoning on basis of these informations, especially the date, which brings it closer to Wendling’s time with Mozart. If Nissen’s name is indeed somehow connected to the manuscript, then there is a good chance that this copy even did belong to Mozart’s own library, perhaps given to him as a fair copy of his own arrangement. Regardless whether authentic or not, it seems to be quite an interesting piece. Thanks for bringing it to light!

  • Mario Kraus says:

    Good evening, I am a Mozart blogger who is very fond of his music and loves to know everything about it. So I’d like to know when exactly the orchestral parts of the flute concerto have been discovered and whether the whole score is available (or only some of the parts).

    Thanks in advance for the information 🙂

    Mario Kraus

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