W. A. Mozart. Contemporary scribal parts for the Piano Concerto in C, K. 415 (387b), 18th century

MOZART, WOLFGANG AMADEUS

Contemporary scribal parts for the Piano Concerto in C, K.415 (387b), [1780s?]

the complete parts, for keyboard, violin I, violin II, viola, bass, oboe I, oboe II, bassoons, horn I, horn II, notated in brown ink apparently by a single scribe, the title-page in another hand ("Concert pour le Clavecin accompagné par Deux Violons Deux Hautbois Fagotti Viole et Basse Composé par Sig^r Mozard")

24 (keyboard), 8 (violin I), 7 (violin II), 6 (viola), 5 (bass), 3 (oboe I), 3 (oboe II), 3 (bassoons), 3 (horn I), 3 (horn II) pages, 4to (c.38 x 23.5cm: keyboard part; c.35 x 21.3cm: orchestral parts), mostly 14 staves per page ruled by a single-headed rastrum, "C & I Honig" paper (keyboard part), some old fingerings in ink, pencil and red crayon, one correction in finale on a strip of paper pinned to the part, manuscript number "368" to the upper right-hand corner of the title-wrapper, outer leaves of keyboard part affixed to original wrappers, no place or date [1780s or later?], wrappers worn, stained and torn, some loss of text in places 

Complete contemporary sets of performing parts for Mozart's works are rare at auction. This source is not recorded by the Neue Mozart Ausgabe [NMA V/15/3, Kritischer Bericht (1991)] 

The piano concerto in C, K. 415, was the third of a set of three composed by Mozart in the winter of 1782-1783. They were offered on subscription to the Viennese public in the form of copies, but without success. An attempt to have them published in Paris by Sieber also met with no response; they were finally published by Artaria in Vienna at the beginning of 1785.