In the fall of 1983, the latest volume in Baerenreiter's Neue Mozart Ausgabe arrived at UMass Music Library. Included in this installment are concerti for flute, bassoon, and oboe. I was particularly interested to see the Oboe Concerto KV 314 in C-Major, as I wanted to compare it to Berhnard Paumgartner's 1948 Boosey & Hawkes publication which is the only performing edition available to oboists.

To be sure, the Baerenreiter version of KV 314 cleared up many of the articulation vaguenesses in the Paumgartner. A facsimile of the first page of the third movement was most revealing: it included all of the orchestral tutti on the oboe part!

But my enthusiasm for working on the KV 314 was quickly cooled when I found at the end of this new Baerenreiter volume, the F-Major Oboe Concerto KV 293 that Mozart had mentioned in 1783 in connection with Prince Esterhazy's oboist, Anton Mayer (at Eszterhaza: January 1781 - September 1790). This was six years after he wrote the C-Major Oboe Concerto for Giuseppe Ferlendis. The Baerenreiter edition, (Serie V, Werkgruppe 14, Band 3, 1981, pages 167-173), is based upon Mozart's score located in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge and includes a facsimilie of the first autograph page on page XV. There are indications that the F-Major Concerto may date back to 1778, which is the period of Mozart's exposure to the Mannheim Orchestra (and its clarinets) and the time when he tried to make a go of it in Paris.

What one finds in this score is the completely orchestrated exposition of all of the main thematic material to be used in the first movement of the concerto. This material, which serves as the first ritornello for the orchestra, is followed by the first episode that the oboe soloist plays, a short ritornello for violin 1, and then the continuation of the first episode up to the point where a modulation to the dominant for the working out of the second theme would take place. This episodic material with its short ritornello is not orchestrated beyond the single line.

Having just recently reconstructed the second movement of Beethoven's Oboe Concerto, with much less to go on insofar as orchestration is concerned, I felt a surge of energy to get to work on completing this movement which Mozart had begun so many years ago for the promise of a payment of six ducats.

Initial procedures Lehrer followed to make a piano reduction...

My first job was to make a piano reduction of Mozart's exposition in order that I could clearly hear all of the parts. This was really exciting: I would write out a phrase or two and then immediately play this on the piano. I couldn't wait to hear what would be coming next!

Throughout the reconstruction, I followed the standard structure used in the late 18th century for the construction of the first movement of a solo concerto. Actually a combination of ritornello form and sonata form, the parts occur as follows:

Ritornello:

A theme Exposition I
B theme
closing themes

Solo Episode:

A theme Exposition 11
B theme (dominant)
closing themes: first half

Ritornello:

closing themes: second half

Solo Episode:

development of the A theme Development

Ritornello & Solo Episode:

A theme Recapitulation
B theme (tonic)
closing themes: first half

Ritornello:

A theme (short section)

Solo Episode:

cadenza on A and B themes

Ritornello:

closing themes: second half

As I began working on the facsimilie of Mozart's manuscript, I noticed that the first theme (A-1) is initially set up much like that of the C Major Oboe Concerto, that is, over a pedal point pulsating in eighth notes, but it is considerably longer than that of the C Major work: 21 measures as opposed to 11 measures. (32 measures if A-2 is included!)

[Click on Examples for enlarged view]



The orchestration is similar to that of the C-Major Concerto, a string body including the usual first and second violins and viola (but there is an additional viola part!), plus basso (continuo) with ith pairs of horns and clarinets (oboes are used in the C-Major Concerto) providing the wind band. In addition there is a pair of bassoons added to bring the wind band or "harmonie" up to six. This type of "harmonie" was typical of the Esterhaza Feldparthien of Haydn and I wondered if Mozart would eventually make individual use of it in this concerto.

Well, I didn't have to wait long to find out, as this little band of six would soon be blowing forth to me over the ages the most fantastic little march which would serve as the second theme of this wonderful exposition!

But before I describe the second theme, there is still more to tell about the first thematic group. Measures 17 and 18 were immediately treated by me to a little ornamentation as they repeated measures 15 and 16.

I remembered Mozart doing this sort of thing in his flute version of the C Major Oboe Concerto when he got to the penultimate closing theme.

In working on the reduction, I decided to remove the oboe doubling of this tutti which Mozart wrote out for the first eight bars only, noting that this should be maintained when playing the concerto with orchestra. Also, I noticed that the complete "A" theme breaks into two parts: measures 1-21 (A-1) and measures 22-32 (A-2).

At measure 33 the B theme gets underway. And like that of its counterpart in the C-Major Concerto, it has a lead-in section; but instead of being two measures long as in measures 12 and 13 of the C-Major work,

it is four measures in length and is played by the violins in octaves senza harmony.





This forms the preparation for the little band of pairs of clarinets, horns, and bassoons which play a sparkling march tune for four measures.



I wondered if this was an actual march tune of the (lay played at the Esterhazy Court which Mozart had inserted for the delight of all who were supposed to hear this concerto played there. In any case, eight measures serves to present this entire B theme theme from measures 33 to 40.

At 41 begins the first of three closing themes. This first one grows out of the march tune and lasts from 41 to its resolution in 45.




At 45 begins the second closing theme, lasting only two measures.



Based upon my understanding of the character of such closing themes in many other works of Mozart and his contemporaries, I decided that this unison theme should repeat in a harmonized version in later presentations. I was so surprised to find this stylistic variant lacking that I could only guess that Mozart was in quite a rush at this point. And, to be sure, after the third closing theme (47-48) which does repeat in measures 49-50,



he only has time to write out the oboe part for another 20 measures, (including a two measure orchestral ritornello), none of which is harmonized.

On the repeat of the third closing theme in measure 49, Mozart wrote a high c3 for the solo oboe entrance which after two measures leads to the first solo episode.




It was after this point that I had to reconstruct the harmonic foundation and orchestration. I decided to deal with it exactly as Mozart had done in the C-major Concerto, that is, I have reduced the orchestration to basically two violins, occasionally joined by the continuo, over a period of I I measures.



At measure 62 comes a two measure ritornello for unison strings which is identical to the second closing theme, and it is orchestrated as before, in unharmonized octaves.

After this ritornello, Mozart develops his A-2 theme, expanding its opening from the five measures of the orchestral ritornello, to seven measures.

But at this point, after the first quarter of measure 70, Mozart stops writing. (Oh, damn! Or in keeping with Mozart's literary style, ach Scheiss!) Still, Mozart had provided the accompanying voices to the shorter form of theme A-2 in the exposition for orchestra, so I acquired this immediately and set it for the basso continuo only. I had to work out the augmented version of the bass line, but it seemed clear how this was to be accomplished.

Now I hit the desert! Where should I go from here, I asked myself'. And as the saxophone student in the ad joining studio hacked his way through one of the Ferling "48", 1 lost my train of thought. Still I had accomplished something this first clay; already I had the following music worked out and I played through it on the piano with great vigor to offset the shrill blast coming from next door:

Orchestral Ritornello Exposition of A- 1 1-21
Exposition of A-2 22-32
Exposition of B 33-40
Exposition of C-1 41-44
Exposition of C-2 45-46
Exposition of C-3 47-50
Solo Episode Working-out of A-1 51-61
Orchestral Ritornello C-2 in unison 62-63
Solo Episode Working-out of A-2 64-70


What should come next, Lehrer?

Based upon a music history course or two that I had taken, I knew that soon this solo episode must get on to the dominant, at which point the soloist would present his version of the B theme and then follow it with the first closing theme. After that I should expect the second and third closing themes to sound forth as an orchestra] ritornello.

Then I knew the going was really going to get rough, because I would have to come up with the development section, evenly divided in its "work opportunities" between the soloist and orchestra. If I could survive the development, the recapitulation would be an easy matter, or so I believed at the time! Of course there was the matter of the cadenza with its lead-in ritornello. So, I got to work on all of this on the ensuing days. To be sure in the evenings it permeated all my dreams! I cursed Mozart: why did he leave this unfinished? I cursed Academe for causing us professorial types to pursue such work! And as the days passed, I continually cursed the sax students in the studio next door for their rough treatment of our Ferling "48".

OK: To work, Lehrer!

As it turned out, Mozart had stopped writing out the oboe part at the very spot where he would be taking the A-2 theme to the dominant. What luck! I simply looked back to the exposition of A-2 in measure 26 which is clearly comparable to 70 of the episode and finished up measures 70 and 71 using measures 26 and 27.

As examples 4, 16, and 18 show, Mozart has expanded A-2's opening from one compound phrase of two three measure sections in the orchestral ritornello, to a new compound phrase of two four measure sections for its use in this solo episode. I then sequenced 71 two times, the second time with florid ornamentation, and viola, I was in the dominant!

I finished up A-2 using the transposed versions of measures 28 through 32 to form 74 through 78.

A little florid ornamentation for the oboe in 76-77 made for more interest.

Now for the B theme I simply transposed that theme in the Exposition to the dominant for its use in this epidsode I kept the Eszterhaza wind band as before: the oboe gets to trill above it.



Also, the closing themes were transposed to the dominant at this point. The first one was given to the oboe.

The second two were set as a ritornello for the orchestra, excepting that in my repeat of C-2, (measures 93-94) the oboe Joins in with a highly ornamented version




So much for the conclusion of the solo episode and orchestral ritornello which older theory books saw its a second exposition

At this point we have added the following:

Solo Episode

A-2 modulation to the dominant 71-78
B in the dominant 79-86
C-1 87-90

Orchestral Ritornello

G-2 91-94
C-3 95-98

Lehrer's solution to the development...

At measure 99, 1 found my self still in the dominant and still in the hands of the full orchestra which had just finished with C-2 and C-3 material as a ritornello. At first, my inclination was to use the final closing theme as the basis of the development, which is the procedure Mozart follows in the first movement of the C-Major Oboe Concerto (for only fifteen measures). But then I also remembered that Mozart equates this final closing theme with the A theme as a peculiarity of the first movement of this earlier work, which is not the case in the F-Major Concerto.

At least, theoretically, I should be developing the A Theme; but with which motive should I begin? After much thought about the problem I decided upon combining the motives of A-1 found in measures I I and 15 of the orchestral exposition.

At measure 99, 1 proceeded to write out the first three measures of the A- I theme as a ritornello for the orchestra.

This is followed by my development of the two afore-mentioned motives of A-1.





The recapitulation...

After this short development, there follows the recapitulation of the A- I theme in the tonic by the orchestra joined by the oboe, which had not played this material in the exposition in its original form. It might be remembered that Mozart actually has the oboe doubling the first violins at the octave for the first eight measures of the opening orchestral ritornello. I took this doubling even further in this section which lasted from measure 112 to measure 132.

Then follows the recapitulation of the first episode which is Mozart's developed version of the A- I theme, the C-2 ritornello, and the A-2 theme in augmentation. I maintained all of this in the tonic.

After this follows the B theme with the little Esterhazy wind band, which had to be transposed to the tonic.

The oboe still has the first closing theme to play in the tonic before this episode ends.

This brought me up to measure 171 with the oboe up on high f3 as a ritornello built on the opening of the A-1 theme leads the orchestra to the I 6/4 chord for the beginning of the oboe cadenza.

I might mention that I varied the recapitulation of the first episode by ornamenting in a florid manner several of Mozart's original figures:

The cadenza was written in the usual way that I recalled from Beethoven's longest cadenza for the first movement of his glorious Fourth Piano Concerto: that is, first developing the A theme (in this case A- 1), and then developing the B theme, finally leading to the rest of the closing thematic material as a ritornello for the orchestra. The cadenza begins on measure 176 and is labeled as measures 176 a through 176 p.

The cadenza is followed by C-2 and C-3 it, the Orchestra lasting from measure 177 until 185.



I added two strokes to the final tonic chord and included the opening motive from the worked-out A- I theme, moving it on an inner voice, and I was finished!



I had now added the following material to my "double exposition":

Orchestral Ritornello

Development of A-I measures 1-3 99-101

Solo Episode

Development of A-1: two motives 102-111

Orchestral Ritornello

Recapitulation of A-1 112-132

Solo Episode

Recapitulation of worked-out A-1 133-143

Orchestral Ritornello

Recapitulation of C-2 144-145

Solo Episode

Recapitulation of worked-out A-2 146-158
Recapitulation of B (tonic) 159-166
Recapitulation of CA 167-170

Orchestral Ritornello

A- I as cadenza lead-in to 1 6/4 171-176

Solo Episode

Cadenza on A-1 and B 176a-176p

Orchestral

Ritornello Recapitulation of C-2 177-180
Recapitulation of C-3 181-185

Some conclusions...

By following the structural conventions used in the first movement of late 18th century concerti composed from the time of C. P. E. Bach to Beethoven, I was able to reconstruct the first movement of Mozart's wonderful F-Major Oboe Concerto from his fully orchestrated exposition and partial first episode for oboe.

During the course of this work, I could not help noticing the similarity between the melodic contours used by Mozart in this F-Major Concerto, and the contours used in the first movement of his Oboe Quartet KV 370! Perhaps there is a melodic style reserved for the key of F-Major in which both works are written. But only further study of the great bulk of Mozart's works in F-major could verify this.

Also, I wondered if Mozart was aware in 1783 that the Griessbacher brothers, Anton and Raymund, who are the only clarinet players listed by Robbins Landon to have been on the Eszterhaza payroll, had been dismissed five years earlier, that is, at the end of February 1778. The reason I mention this is that Mozart first speaks of the possibility of composing a second oboe concerto in a letter to his father on February 15, 1783; but the manuscript which comes down to us includes clarinets as a most important factor in the orchestration.

At this point, one might actually wonder, was this F-Major Oboe Concerto actually started as early as 1778 as a work composed especially for the Mannheim oboist, Friedrich Ramm? Remember, Mannheim had the clarinets demanded by the orchestration and in a letter to his father dated December 3, 1778, Mozart was very hot indeed for the clarinet.

I hope in the future to make this work available to all oboists. I should like to thank the oboists Earnest Harrison, Lady Evelyn Rothwell, James Lakin, and especially James Ledward of Nova Music, all of whom made the publication of my reconstruction of the second movement of Beethoven's Oboe Concerto a reality. I think I should need their collective help again for this Mozart project!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Anderson, Emily, The of Mozart and His Family New York: St. Martin's Press, 1966.

Biancolli, Louis, The Mozart Handbook, Cleveland and New York: The Word Publishing Company, 1954.

Robbins Landon, H.C., Haydn: Chronicle And Works, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.

Scores

van Beethoven, Ludwig, Kadenzen zu klavierkonzerten, Munich: G. Henle Verlag, 1967.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Oboe, Concerto in C-Major, or, KV '314, London: Boosey & Hawkcs, 1948. Edition of Bernhard Paumgartner.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Oboe, Concerto in C-Major, KV 314, Kassel: Baerenreiter, 1981. Edition of Franz Giegling.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Oboe Concerto 71 F-Major, KV 293, Kassel: Baerenreiter, 1981Edition of, Franz Giegling.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Quartet in F, KV 370, Kassel: Baerenreiter, 1962

Recordings

van Beethoven, Ludwig, Piano Concerto IV, ' 0p. 58, Philips 6500 975.

Performance of Stephen Bishop and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Oboe Concerto in C-Major, KV 314, Philips 6500 174.

Performance of Heinz Holliger and the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Edo de Waart.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Oboe, Concerto in C-Major, KV :314, Telefunken 6.42361 A"'.

Performance of Juerg Schaeftlein with the Salzburg conducted by Leopold Hager.
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Oboe Quarto, KV 370: Philips 957.
Performance of Heinz Holliger.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Oboe Quartet, KV :370: Harmonia Mundi 065-99 695.

Performance of Helmut Hucke on a Classic Oboe

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Oboe, Quartet, KV 370: Columbia ML4566.

Performance of Marcel Tabuteau at the Perpignan Casals Festival.

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