Wolfgang Amade Mozart
Quintet Eb-major KV 407 for Horn, Violin, 2 Violas and Cello
First, it should be said, that the present issue has neither the claim nor the goal to edit an autograph. Rather, a neglected source of the Horn Quintet KV 407 shall be presented.
Mozart composed the quintet for horn, violin, 2 violas and cello between 1781 and 1783. It was composed for the horn player Joseph Leitgeb (1732 - 1811). Leitgeb, a close friend of the Mozart family, comes from a musical family in Vienna, according to the baptismal record sixth October 1732 "Son of the violinist Leopold Leitgeb”. Leitgeb was employed in Vienna and Salzburg, travelled as a soloist for a while and moved to Vienna in 1777. Mozart had to the family Leitgeb an exceptionally friendly relation. Again and again asked Leitgeb for horn compositions, one of which is the present quintet. However, neither the composition in the original has been preserved, nor an indication of when it was composed. In Mozart's own catalog of works, which he led from 1784, the quintet KV 407 is missing.
After Mozart's death, Mozart's widow Constanze Mozart was negotiating with various publishers aiming the publication of the works of her husband. In the end, the publisher Andre got in 1800 almost all manuscripts.
The quintet KV 407, however, appeared in 1796 at the Leipzig publisher Schmiedt & Rau already in the first edition, entitled "Quintet / pour / COR ALTO VIOLIN DEUX ET BASSE / compose par / WA MOZART / Leipsic chez Schmiedt & Rau”.
The publisher Andre asked for works with horn at Constanze. She suspected some original compositions kept by Leitgeb. In fact, she was wrong and said so 31 May 1800 to the publisher Andre: "Leitgeb has nothing in the way, even as a copy Quintetto Dis in a corno solo, violino, viola prima, secunda viola, cello, which you probably have the original!"
In the manuscripts of Mozart, the publisher Andre did not find, however, any reference to an original of this work. Andre 1802 brought out his edition of the quintet with two large cuts in the first and third movement, as well as numerous differences from the first edition of Schmiedt & Rau. In 1799, the Viennese pub-lisher Ataria edited a version, where the horn has been replaced by a second cello. Constanze Mozart has also reported about it to Andre 1800.
All these facts have been included in the edition of the New Mozart Edition in 1958 and with the same source material, the publisher Henle tried an autograph edition in 2009.
In these issues, however, there is one source missing, which is to be presented now by the Robert Ostermeyer Musikedition. The library of the Austrian monastery Seitenstetten keeps, among other copies of works for horn, a copy with the title "Quintetto / a / Corno Solo in Dis / Violino / viola Primo / Secondo viola / Cello / Del Sigre. Mozart" with the signature V 260.
As you can see, the title is almost identical to the one, Constanze Mozart told to Andre about Leitgeb’s possession. The expression "Corno Dis" identifies the copy with a very early date, because the term was no more in use after 1800. On 20/01/1849 someone with the name "Fr Walter " added to this copy a cello part, arranged from the horn part. On the title page he wrote (as demonstrated in the totally different font) some more information, as for example “to Koechel’s catalog no.407” or “because of absence cello solo, op.108”.
The copy is considered as quite in time to Mozart's composition date. In contrast to the prints of Andre and Schmiedt & Rau, the Seitenstetten source is characterized by very logical articulation, phrasing and dynamic markings.
