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A large topic that seems little discussed these days is the topic of the unfinished Mozart horn concertos.
Unfinished? Concertos!? What?!?
A movement of one of the unfinished concertos has been widely performed for many years, and is commonly known as the Concert Rondo. This is the last movement of was to be another E-flat major concerto – for which there is a matching first movement with the same, incomplete orchestration, but with pages or portions of pages of the score missing today. This work is the Concerto in E Flat Major, K.370b/371.
And Mozart also started an E major concerto, the Concerto in E Major, K.494a, that would have been an amazing work if completed.
Reconstructions of both of these works have been recorded, and they are available as sheet music.
What? Where do I find these pieces?!?
James Nicholas has to be the leading exponent of reconstructing these works, in addition to his composition of other works for natural horn. His reconstruction work was done largely years ago, with versions available through Birdalone Music, which I have performed from and always mention to my repertoire class. But in these last several years, Nicholas has been working on updates and has posted extensive information on these concertos and more in his website. Check at the link for much more!
Check out his site first, but if you want to purchase these works, in the versions by James Nicholas, they are available from Birdalone Music at this link.
A teaser of what you are missing
I mentioned the incomplete E major concerto movement. Barry Tuckwell made this fascinating, even iconic, recording years ago of exactly what Mozart wrote. The exposition of this work is completely orchestrated, and the first section of the solo is partially orchestrated to the point that the work sadly ends. I tend to agree with the theory that the work was deemed too difficult by the soloist and was abandoned. Which is really sad, but that is also what makes it such a great project for the player of today to perform from an edition such as the one by Nicholas. Do check it out.
