“IT WAS ONLY IN THE PIANO CONCERTO FORM THAT MOZART ACHIEVED HIS IDEAL”: VERY RARE CONTEMPORARY EDITION OF MOZART’S PIANO CONCERTO IN F MAJOR

MOZART, W.A. Grand Concert pour le Clavecin ou Forte Piano avec L’Accompagnement des Plusieurs Instruments. [K413]. Amsterdam: J. Schmitt, [circa 1790]. Folio, piano and eight accompanying parts, unbound as issued. Housed in a custom cloth clamshell box.    $12,500.

Early edition in parts of one of Mozart’s three early Viennese Piano Concertos, most likely published during Mozart’s lifetime, fully engraved. “It breathes pure joy from beginning to end.”

The Piano Concerto in F Major, one of three Piano Concertos composed by Mozart in Vienna in 1782-83, lays the groundwork for the major Viennese works that were to follow in the years to come. “It breathes pure joy from beginning to end” (Biancolli, Mozart Handbook, 389). “Splendid as are the examples of the concerto form for string and wind instruments, it was only in the piano concertos that Mozart achieved his ideal. They are the peak of all his instrumental achievement” (Einstein, 287). Although there is no determined publication date for this edition, the publisher Joseph Schmitt died in May of 1791 (more than six months before Mozart’s death), strongly suggesting a prior date of publication. Contemporary editions of Mozart’s piano concertos are quite rare; the British Library copy of this concerto contains the piano part but is lacking the orchestral parts. First published in 1785. With parts for piano (15 pages), basso, violin I and II, viola, oboe I and II, and horn I and II.

Expert repair to title page and basso part, affecting just a few notes. Plates exceptionally clean overall. Very rare and desirable.