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A question that comes up quite often is that of the “tutti” parts in some editions of Mozart horn concertos. As in, what is up with that marking? Do I need to play those parts?
Like it or not a lot of players are turning to the IMSLP project for music, as noted in another recent article. The public domain version of Mozart 4 there is the old Kling edition of Mozart 4. In it the very opening is marked “tutti” and later, after letter B, we finally get to a passage marked “solo.”
It is something you should be able to figure out just from listening to a recording (!) but to make it formal, the tutti parts in this edition are really just cues of the first horn part in the orchestra, but printed full size (we are used to seeing cues in smaller print). As soloist playing from the solo part you only play the solo parts such as after B and at C in the example here.
If you are playing in orchestra however and you see the marking tutti that is an indication of you should be playing and also with a bunch of other people! It is in that situation an indication of when the soloist is playing and when they are not.
In one very random, final aside, I once played under a conductor that was trying to be funny and used the term “Tutti-Frutti” whenever he should have said tutti. Never got much more than a groan from me on that.
