Földvári Books

Piano Arrangement of Mozart Last String Quintet

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

Sonate à quatre mains pour le Piano-Forte composée par W. A. Mozart. Oeuvre 55.me. No 997. Prix f2. [K. 614]

A Offenbach sur le Mein: chez Jean André, [1796]. PN 997;. First edition of this piano arrangement for four hands of Mozart’s String Quintet No. 6. Oblong. Engraved throughout. Inscription on printed page “Nürinberg aus Winterschmid's Musikal. Niederlage, am Obstmarkt No. 982”. 25 [1] p. Water stain at lower gutter throughout. A light brown stain at the lower edge of the title page. Title and last pages dusted at the outer edges. Otherwise in fine condition.

Mozart finished his last major chamber work, String Quintet No. 6., in Vienna on 12. April 1791. The composition was first published by Artaria in May 1793. A month later Johann André printed it too (PN 610), who also published a piano arrangement of the Quintet’s celebrated Andante in the following year (Andante varié pour le Clavecin, ou Piano-Forté- Oeuvre 40me; PN 657), and the present arrangement of three movements: Allegro di molto, Andante, and Allegro, in 1797.

Due to the rarity of this edition, it was unobtainable to most earlier scholars, thus some bibliographies attribute it as an arrangement of Allegro für Klavier zu vier Händen (Fragment) K. 357 (497a). The confusion also derives from André’s 1793 edition of the quintet which appeared with a different oeuvre number (Grand Quintetto pour deux Violons, deux Alto et Violoncelle...Oeuvre 37me). (Rehm-Shmid, 1957)

Kritischer Bericht mentions a 1797 Braunschweig-edition of the same arrangement, however, the identical plate numbers rather suggest that it was either a shared edition with André (Matthäus, 1973), or a later reissue employing André’s plates, which might be the case with the Gombart-edition too (Matthäus, 1973; Rheinfurth, 1999).

Scarce, RISM lists only one copy worldwide, in Hungary (Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Főiskola Könyvtára, Budapest), besides this one, we could not trace any other copies in institutional holdings. RISM A/I M 6067 Literature: Matthäus, J.: Johann André Musikverlag zu Offenbach am Main: Verlagsgeschichte und Bibliographie, 1772-1800. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1973.; Rehm, W., Schmid, E. F. (ed.): Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Kritischer Bericht. SEC. 24. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1957. p. 171.; Rheinfurth, H. (1999). Musikverlag Gombart, Basel, Augsburg: (1789 - 1836). Tutzing: Schneider, 1999.

Price: €4,500.00