Although his reputation—both musical and moral—has been frequently impugned over the years, Antonio Salieri is recognized as one of the finest opera composers of his day. However, his purely instrumental output is much more scant, and it has been ardently ignored. The Concerto for flute, oboe, and orchestra in C major—a work that the featured wind players would surely would have wanted—remained unpublished for 188 years after its composition in 1774 (the same year that he was appointed, at age 24, as Kapellmeister of the Italian Opera in Vienna). Nevertheless, it is an interesting work in which Salieri's operatic temperament shows as clearly, if not perhaps as cleanly or effectively, as does Mozart's in his instrumental concertos.

The concerto is in three movements. During the first, the two soloists frequently operate as a single unit, indulging in parallel thirds; but sometimes, as at the start of the second theme, they part ways, overlapping and dovetailing with suspensions. The tense dialogue between the two soloists at the start of the development section fully betrays Salieri's operatic sensibilities. There is a written-out cadenza at the expected spot in the movement, but it is not written in Salieri's hand.

The Largo second movement (cantabile) is in F major, with melody and countermelody begun by the two sections of violins and then taken over by the soloists and floridly elaborated. Again there is a cadenza at the end (and again it is not in Salieri's hand). There is a dancehall character to the Allegretto finale, with its boisterous main tune and persistent "misplaced" accents.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.