Customer Reviews

Piano Concerto No. 26 In D Major ("Coronation"), K.537: The Autograph Score (Pierpont Morgan Library Music Manuscript Reprint Series)

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For those of us unable to view priceless Mozart autographs firsthand, Dover Publications presents a valuable facsimile of the autograph of the Piano Concerto in D, K. 537, preserved at the Pierpont-Morgan Library in New York. Special interest attaches to this work because of the large number of passages Mozart never filled in (perhaps because he improvised them?) in the piano part. An informative introduction by noted musicologist Alan Tyson enhances the value of this volume even further

The most important merit of this facsimile edition consists in supplying thousands of fans with a sample of Mozart handwriting at a low price. Why cannot musicologists benefit from this paperback? You are probably wondering whether scholars do not like cheap editions. Well, they do not when it is a matter of facsimiles, because no good facsimile is ever three-quarter-size nor is it black-and-white.
First of all Mozart, as many other composers, used to write down the principal parts, i.e. the solo part, the violins accompaniment, the bass line and occasional winds passages. Then, when the framework of the concerto was completed, he usually wrote the orchestration with a somewhat different, lighter or darker ink. Such a significant detail disappears in this black-and-white reproduction, although the aim of the publisher was to "study Mozart's original intentions, revisions, etc. - just as they flowed from his pen".
So, if you are looking for something more than Mozart mere handwriting, this book does not suit you. The introduction by Alan Tyson provides whoever has never seen before a Mozart autograph with helpful comments. Initiated readers may read his "Mozart: Studies of the Autograph Scores", Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1987.