Paganini, Niccolò

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, laid down with a pencil portrait and a lithographed portrait of Paganini in June 1831, paper-loss to right-hand margin barely touching the text, small stains to the manuscript

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Autograph music by Paganini is rare. This is a major work, for which there is no complete autograph score.  Paganini's manuscript of 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).

The copy in Rome is written in  the key of D major (the soloist has to tune the violin a semitone 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 opening, there also exists an autograph short score (on two staves) of the Rondò finale, which is also in E flat (I-Rc, ms Cas 5562), which 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's the edition of this work for the complete works of Paganini (Rome: Istituto italiano per la storia della musica, 2007).