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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Composer

Violin Concerto No.7 in D, K.271a (doubtful)   

Performances: 9
Tracks: 24
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Musicology:
  • Violin Concerto No.7 in D, K.271a (doubtful)
    Key: D
    Year: 1777
    Genre: Concerto
    Pr. Instrument: Violin
    • 1.Allegro maestoso
    • 2.Andante
    • 3.Rondo: Allegro
This Violin Concerto in D major carrying Mozart's name is not necessarily a forgery, although its authorship is contested. In 1837, French violinist Eugène Sauzay produced a copy, in his own hand, of what he said was an authentic Mozart manuscript dated Salzburg, July 16, 1777. Around 1840, Austrian musicologist Aloys Fuchs delivered a version of the score obtained from a separate source. The concerto was published in 1907 by Breitkopf and Härtel and called "No. 7" (the "sixth," published in 1799, is now believed to be the work of Friedrich Johann Eck). Because musicologists couldn't agree on its authenticity, the concerto was excluded from the 1983 violin concerto volume of the New Complete Edition of Mozart's works. It is undeniably weaker than the five, slightly earlier authenticated Mozart violin concertos, but this alone cannot call the work's legitimacy into question.

The concerto falls into the standard three movements and makes virtuosic demands on the soloist. In the opening Allegro, the orchestra presents a bouncy first theme, the strings doing the bulk of the work with periodic encouragement from the woodwinds; this is paired with a broader theme of a rather generic character. The solo violin appears, but resists playing the material exactly as the orchestra has presented it; the first theme, in particular, receives heavy elaboration right from the beginning, while the second theme is played comparatively straight. As the long movement progresses, the first theme often becomes more jagged and nervously repetitive; it seems to be more the subject of a set of variations to display violin technique than a free development, with the second theme providing occasional contrast.

The Andante begins with a brief pizzicato section for the strings followed by a broader treatment by full orchestra, all of which suggests a lover serenading his beloved beneath her balcony. When the soloist takes up the melody—frequently supported by more orchestral pizzicati—the theme sounds even more vocal, although it remains too tied to violin technique to suggest the nobility and flexibility associated with Mozart's later opera arias. The movement is a series of meditations on this material, with a contrasting minor-mode episode in the middle, the initial section then repeated.

The Rondo: Allegro, after an extended orchestral opening, hands the soloist a graceful melody, dotted with strategically placed accidentals, that is highly typical of Mozart's style. Less characteristic is the fact that the succeeding episodes, including an early cadenza, have more to do with solo display than thematic adventure.|

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