Bassoon Concerto (Mozart)

The Bassoon Concerto in B flat major

B flat major

B major or B-flat major is a major scale based on B-flat, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats, B/E .Its relative minor is G minor, and its parallel minor is B minor....

 (K.

Köchel-Verzeichnis

The Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed....

 191), written in 1774 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as...

, is the most standard piece in the entire bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 1800s, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature...

 repertory. Nearly all professional bassoonists will perform the piece at some stage in their career, and it is probably the most commonly requested piece in orchestral auditions – it is usually requested that the player perform the excerpts from concerto's first two movements in every audition.

Although the autograph is lost, the exact date of the finishing is known: 4 June 1774.

Mozart wrote the bassoon concerto when he was 18 years old, and it was his first concerto for wind instruments.

The Bassoon Concerto in B flat major

B flat major

B major or B-flat major is a major scale based on B-flat, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats, B/E .Its relative minor is G minor, and its parallel minor is B minor....

 (K.

Köchel-Verzeichnis

The Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed....

 191), written in 1774 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as...

, is the most standard piece in the entire bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 1800s, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature...

 repertory. Nearly all professional bassoonists will perform the piece at some stage in their career, and it is probably the most commonly requested piece in orchestral auditions – it is usually requested that the player perform the excerpts from concerto's first two movements in every audition.

Although the autograph is lost, the exact date of the finishing is known: 4 June 1774.

Mozart wrote the bassoon concerto when he was 18 years old, and it was his first concerto for wind instruments. Although it is believed that it was commissioned by an aristocratic amateur bassoon player Thaddäus Freiherr von Dürnitz, who owned seventy-four works by Mozart, this is a claim that is supported by little evidence. Scholars believe that Mozart wrote perhaps three bassoon concerti

Bassoon concerto

A bassoon concerto is a concerto for bassoon and orchestra. Some of the more famous bassoon concertos are:*Franz Danzi Bassoon Concerto Nos. 1 & 2 in F major, G minor, C Major*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Bassoon Concerto*Carl Maria von Weber's Bassoon Concerto...

, but that only the first has survived.

Structure

The piece itself is divided into three movements

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession.Often a composer attempts to...

:

• I. Allegro
• II. Andante ma Adagio
• III. Rondo
  Rondo
  Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also in reference to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
  
  : tempo di menuetto
  Minuet
  A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two persons, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, meaning small, pretty, delicate, a diminutive of menu, from the Latin minutus; menuetto is a word that occurs only on musical scores...
  
  

The first movement is written in the common sonata form

Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical period. While it is typically used in the first movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well...

 with an orchestral introduction. The second movement is a slow, lyrical movement that contains a theme which was later featured in the Countess's aria "Porgi, Amor" at the beginning of the second act of Mozart's opera Le nozze di Figaro. The final movement is in rondo form and is probably reminiscent of a dance of the time.

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