Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the finale of the Piano Quartet in E flat, K.493, FORMERLY IN THE COLLECTION OF PAUL HIRSCH

the 11-bar piano quartet fragment in E flat K.493a notated in a vivid brown ink on two five-stave systems on the recto of the leaf, with autograph instrumental designations ("Violino", "Viola", "Cembalo", "Violoncello"), the fragment deleted with a single stroke possibly by Georg Nikolaus Nissen, the rest of the leaf used to notate, on three-stave systems and in cerise and brown inks, a number of canon and contrapuntal studies, including the canons K.Anh.H 11/15-18 (K.^1-6 507, 508, K.⁶ 508A), with a number of later manuscript entries including by Maximilian Stadler ("Anfang eines 4.^tett", above K.493a; "3 stimmiger Canon", above K.Anh 11/15), and Nissen ("N.4", on recto, upper left-hand corner; "Schön", on recto, middle of the outer margin), the canons containing numerous autograph deletions and corrections

2 pages, oblong 4to (22.3 x 30.8cm), 12-stave paper (Tyson Watermark 82, quadrant 1b), the number "6" in red ink, on recto, lower outer corner, probably originating with Breitkopf & Härtel, later pencil annotations by Paul Hirsch to recto ("s. K.493 / früher K.Anh.53", upper outer corner; "Canon Heiterkeit und / leichtes Blut / Breitk.", outer margin) and verso ("Auf das Wohl / Breitk.", to the left of stave 4), no place or date [Vienna, 1786], central vertical crease

THIS IS A STUNNING AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT SKETCHLEAF DATING FROM THE YEAR OF LE NOZZE DI FIGARO.

FORMERLY OWNED BY THE LEGENDARY COLLECTOR, BIBLIOPHILE AND MOZARTIAN PAUL HIRSCH (1881-1951), IT HAS APPARENTLY NEVER BEEN OFFERED AT AUCTION UNTIL NOW.

The year 1786, from which this leaf dates, saw Mozart at the zenith of his fame and success in Vienna, an astonishing stream of masterpieces pouring from his pen. Framed at one end by the great Lenten season piano concertos in A (K.488) and C minor (K.491) and, at the other, by the Piano Concerto in C, K.503, and the 'Prague' symphony K.504 (both completed in December), this year, which also saw the first production of Le nozze di Figaro (on 1 May), witnessed in addition a dazzling sequence of chamber music compositions and works for piano, notably the Piano Quartet in E flat, K.493 (entered in Mozart's own thematic catalogue of his works, the Verzeichnüss, on 3 June), the Piano Trio in G, K.496 (8 July), the Sonata in F for piano four hands, K.497 (1 August), the Trio in E flat for piano, clarinet and viola, K.498 (5 August), the String Quartet in D ('Hoffmeister'), K.499 (19 August) and the Piano Trio in B flat, K.502 (18 November).

It is with the first of these chamber works, K.493, that the present leaf has traditionally been connected, and there seems little reason to doubt that the 11-bar piano quartet fragment (K.493a) at its head was an abandoned attempt to write a finale for it. This exquisitely crafted piano quartet is one of two flawless masterworks by Mozart in a genre he virtually created. Its slightly earlier companion, in G minor, K.478 (whose autograph is dated 16 October 1785), a work of smouldering and barely contained intensity (at least in the opening Allegro), was the first of supposedly three piano quartets commissioned by the publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister. According to the biography of Mozart by Georg Nikolaus von Nissen (who married the composer's widow, Constanze, in 1809) this quartet was so poorly received by the public that Hoffmeister let Mozart keep his advance payment on condition that he should not write the other two quartets contracted for. Although attempts in the past have been made to link K.493 with Hoffmeister's commission, recent research has suggested that K.493, which was given to Artaria in Vienna in late 1786 and to Stephen Storace for publication in London, should not be connected in any way with Hoffmeister's publishing project.

Why the finale fragment, with its attractive moto perpetuo theme was abandoned is not especially obvious. In the completed quartet movement Mozart settled on a theme with a more regular rhythmic profile, though something of the melodic and rhythmic outline of the fragment's theme seems to have survived in an important subsidiary figure in the finished movement (see bb.35-36). Mozart's attempts at sketching the finally-adopted theme are contained on another leaf that is in a number of ways a twin of the present one - in addition to having a connection with the E flat piano quartet it also contains a series of canons: K.Anh.H 11/19-26 (K.^3-6 508a nos.1-8). Unfortunately the whereabouts of that leaf are currently unknown (it was last recorded in the 1980s as being in the British Library) - a doubly regrettable circumstance, since there is no surviving autograph score for the whole piano quartet.

Following the piano quartet fragment, and occupying most of the remaining space on the leaf, are a series of study canons, including the 3-voice canons K.Anh.H 11/15 (K.^1-6 507), K.Anh.H 11/16 (K.^1-6 508) and K.Anh.H 11/18 (K.⁶ 508A), some of these notated in differing versions. A preoccupation with canon or various other types of contrapuntal exercise can be observed at a number of stages in Mozart's life, for instance in 1772 in Salzburg, following exposure to the canons of Padre Martini, and in 1782 in Vienna, when he fell under the spell of Handel and Bach's fugues. In those cases, Mozart was doing the learning; with the present canons we may be seeing Mozart the teacher. It is tempting to see in them preparatory teaching material for the young English musician Thomas Attwood (1765-1838), who studied with Mozart in Vienna from August 1785 to February 1787, not least because Attwood made a copy of two of the canons here, K.Anh.H 11/15 and 16 (K.^1-6 507 and 508), as the so-called Attwood manuscript, one of the great treasures of the British Library, reveals.

A particularly striking feature of the leaf is the use of a rare cerise-coloured ink to notate most of the canons. It is one of a number of unusual inks occasionally encountered in Mozart's autographs, their rarity enabling them to be used for dating purposes. Another notable example is the bluish grey ink found only in autographs of works written in Salzburg, and mostly dating from 1769. The cerise ink can be found in dated scores from 1786, for instance in the autographs of the Horn Concerto in E flat, K.495 (Verzeichnüss date: 26 June) and the Piano Trio in G, K.496 (Verzeichnüss date: 8 July); and it was also used by Mozart to notate an undated fragmentary concerto movement in D for keyboard, K.537a (K.¹Anh.57), and to write on a scrap of paper what may be a humorous arithmetical exercise ostensibly relating to Mozart's income and outgoings.

It would appear that the sketchleaf was not part of the initial consignment of '15 parcels', comprising the bulk of Mozart's autograph manuscripts, that were acquired by the Offenbach publisher Johann Anton André in January 1800. The numbering in the upper left-hand corner of the first page of the sketchleaf ("N.4"), by Nissen, may possibly link the autograph to a group of 13 canons which Constanze sent to the Leipzig publishers Breitkopf & Härtel, and which are frequently mentioned (but not explicitly identified) in her correspondence (on 13 November 1799, for example, she requested them back). Other possible canon leaves from this group may include those containing K.562c (K.¹Anh.191) (numbered "13"), K.Anh.H 9/2 (K.^3-6562b) ("2") and K.232 (K.^3-6509a) ("3"). In Constanze and Nissen's eyes the most immediately exploitable contents of the sketchleaf were the two 3-voice canons K.Anh.H 11/15 (K.^1-6 507) and K.Anh.H 11/16 (K.^1-6 508), contained, respectively, on staves 6-11 of the recto, and (in its final form) on staves 4-6 of the verso. And indeed these canons - with newly supplied texts ("Heiterkeit und leichtes Blut" and "Auf das Wohl aller Freunde") - were published by Breitkopf in 1804, in Cahier 16 of the so-called Oeuvres complettes, along with 14 other canons, not all of them by Mozart. It was for this reason that the non-canonic item on the leaf - the piano quartet fragment - was struck out, no doubt by Nissen (his probably earlier marginal annotation "Schön" (i.e. 'nice') presumably refers, however, to the piano quartet draft and not to the following canon).

Layout of the sketchleaf:

RECTO

Staves 1-5 and 7a-11a K.493a (K.¹ Anh.53; Fr 1786j) Probable attempt at a finale for the Piano Quartet in E flat, K.493, score, 11 bars

Staves 6[b]-8b and 9b-11b K.Anh.H 11/15 (K.^1-6 507) Canon in F for 3 voices (SST), score, 14 bars

Staves 9c-11c K.Anh.H 7/31 (Sk 1786r) 3-voice contrapuntal study, 10 bars

VERSO

Staves 1-3 K.Anh.H 11/16 (K.^1-6 508) Canon in F for 3 voices (SST), first notation, score, 5 bars, with autograph designations "2.^da di sopra", before stave 2, and "6.^t di sotto", before stave 3

Staves 4-6 K.Anh.H 11/16 (K.^1-6 508) Canon in F for 3 voices (SST), second notation, score, 12 bars

Staves 7a-9a K.Anh.H 11/17 (Sk 1786s) Canon in F for 3 voices (SST) at the third, score, 7 bars, deleted by Mozart

Staves 7b-9b K.Anh.H 11/18 (K.⁶ 508A) Interval canon in C for 3 voices (SAB), first notation, score, 7 bars

Staves 10a-12a K.Anh.H 11/18 (K.⁶ 508A) Interval canon in C for 3 voices (SAB), second notation, score, 9 bars

Staves 10b-12b K.Anh.H 11/18 (K.⁶ 508A) Interval canon in C for 3 voices (SAB), third notation, score, 7 bars

See the following two lots and also lots 5 and 6.

PROVENANCE:

Formerly in the collection of Paul Hirsch († 1951), Frankfurt and Cambridge; by descent to the present owner

LITERATURE:

NMA VIII/22/Abteilung 1 (1957), pp.166-167 (draft and sketch for K.493 iii); NMA III/10 (1974), pp.86-88 (K.^1-6 507, 508), 109-110 K.⁶ 508A and [Sk.1786s]), and critical report (2007), pp.b/77-80, 94; Alan Tyson, Mozart. Studies of the Autograph Scores (1987), pp.141-244; NMA X/33, Abteilung 2 [Watermark catalogue, prepared by Alan Tyson] (1992); Ulrich Konrad, Mozarts Schaffensweise (1992), pp.323-324; Volkmar Braunbehrens and Ulrich Drüner, 'Ein unbekannter Zettel von Wolfgang Amadé Mozart', Mozart-Jahrbuch 1993 (1994), pp.65-76; Ulrich Konrad, 'Was ist interpretatorische Gewalt? Zur Deutung des aufgefundenen Zettels von Mozart', Mozart-Jahrbuch 1993 (1994), pp.77-82; NMA X/30/3 (1998) (facsimile and transcription: Sketchleaf 1786c); NMA X/30/4 (2002) (Fr 1786j; facsimile of fol.1r)); John Arthur, 'The Composition Date of Mozart's Symphony in C, K.73', Mozart Studien, vol.15 (2006), pp.113-164; Rupert Ridgewell, 'Biographical Myth and the Publication of Mozart's Piano Quartets', Journal of the Royal Musical Association, vol.135 no.1 (2010), passim; Neal Zaslaw, ed., Thematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (2024), pp.603-604, 1034-1036, 1111