Paganini, Nicolò.

the short score notated in E-flat major for solo and accompaniment, marked "Rondò Allegretto" by Paganini, comprising the opening fifteen bars of the movement , written in dark brown ink on three two-stave systems, 1 page (c.12.5 x 13cms), 6-stave paper, from an album, small paper-loss to right-hand margin barely touching the text, laid down with a pencil portrait of the composer, and with a lithographed portrait of Paganini in June 1831 laid down on the back, small stains to the manuscript



Autograph music by Paganini is rare. This is a major work by the composer, for which there is no complete autograph score.  Paganini's manuscript of this, his most famous violin concerto, contains only the orchestral parts; the separate solo part is in a copyist's hand (Rome, Biblioteca Casanatense ms Cas. 5560). 

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The copy in Rome is written in  the key of D major (the soloist has to tune the violin a semi-tone higher), whilst the parts are in E flat.  Most modern editions and recordings still present the whole concerto incorrectly in the key of D.  Besides the present autograph manuscript of the opening, there also exists an autograph short score (on two staves) of the Rondò finale, which is, like the present manuscript, in E flat (I-Rc, ms Cas 5562) ; however this apparently contains an earlier (and much shorter) version of the movement than in the concerto.  The First Violin Concerto was composed in about 1815, but only published posthumously.  See M.R. Moretti & A. Sorrento, Catalogo tematico, (Genoa: 1982), and Leslie Howard, in the edition of the First Concerto for the complete works of Paganini (Rome: Istituto italiano per la storia della musica, 2007).