Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus.

the working manuscript of bars 29-39 of the second movement ('Andante'), scored for orchestra of solo violin, 2 oboes, 2 horns and strings, notated in brown ink on one eight-stave system per page, one correction



2 pages, small oblong 4to (c.16.2 x 21.7cm), 10-stave, so-called "Klein-Querformat", paper (Tyson, Wasserzeichen Katalog, no.31), pagination "43" and foliation "16" at the upper right-hand corner of the recto possibly in the hand of Leopold Mozart, no place or date [1773], vertical crease

An attractive leaf, bearing a fine watermark, from one of Mozart's major orchestral serenades.

The D-major Serenade, K.185, was one of a number of remarkable instrumental compositions penned by the seventeen-year-old composer in 1773. Although the exact circumstances of its composition are still a matter of debate, it is generally held that the work was designed as a summer Finalmusik - a characteristic Salzburg musical form - to mark the graduation from Salzburg University of the Mozart family's friend Judas Thaddäus von Antretter, born 28 October 1753 (Köchel⁶ presumes the work to have been written in Vienna between July and the beginning of August 1773). K.185, with its seven movements - Allegro assai, Andante, Allegro, Menuetto, Andante grazioso, Menuetto and Adagio-Allegro assai - is notable for its integration of symphonic and concertante elements, three of the movements (the Andante, Allegro and one of the trios) including solo violin in their scoring.

Mozart's score of K.185 contained 58 leaves, of which the present manuscript is leaf 16. The work was originally bound together with the March K.189 (167b) in one volume assembled by Leopld Mozart - the so-called 'Cranz' volume no.1, at one time in the possession of Schubert's friend Leopold von Sonnleithner. (The third 'Cranz' volume, containing nine symphonies of Mozart from 1773-1774, was sold in these rooms on 22 May 1987, lot 457.) In 1966, K.189 was sold separately at auction in Germany, K.185 being similarly offered for sale nine years later. The serenade manuscript was subsequently dismembered; the exact whereabouts of much of it are currently unknown. The famous British Mozart scholar Alan Tyson, who did not examine leaf 16, lists only 11 leaves of K.185 in his catalogue of Mozart's watermarks (1992) - and none of these is from the second movement. One further leaf was sold in these rooms on 26 May 2000 (lot 185).