W. A. Mozart. First edition of the Piano Concerto in E flat, K. 449, 1792

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

Concerto pour le Clavecin, ou Piano-Forté avec accompagnement de plusieurs instruments...Oeuvre 23^me [parts], Offenbach: chez J. André et aux adresses ordinaires, [1792]

FIRST EDITION OF THE PIANO CONCERTO IN E FLAT, K. 449, the complete parts, 15, 5, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1 pages, 4to (keyboard part: 33 x 23.7cm; the other parts: c. 34 x 24.7cm), engraved throughout, plate number 526, ownership inscription to keyboard title-page ("Ernst Rudorff. Lichtenstein's Nachlass"), some manuscript annotations to first tutti of first movement, the keyboard part bound in contemporary blue card wrappers, the other parts loose, manuscript label to upper cover, remnant of paper strip affixed to upper left-hand corner of keyboard title, light browning to edges and to title of keyboard part

A good copy of the first edition of one of Mozart's finest keyboard concertos, the first work to be entered in the composer's own thematic catalogue of his works (under the date of 9 February 1784). Written for his pupil Barbara Ployer, it was referred to by Mozart, in a letter of 26 May 1784, as 'a concerto of a quite special kind'. RISM records only two institutions in America with copies, and only two copies in Britain, the British Library copy lacking the keyboard part.

LITERATURE

RISM M 5808; Haberkamp, pp. 215-216