Biographie Antonio Rosetti
Antonio Rosetti
Horn Concerto Eb major (RWV C42)
This concerto is listed in the Rosetti Works Directory (RWV) as C42. Before that it was included by musicologist Oskar Kaul in his listing of Rosetti's works as III:41. The sources are two almost identical copies, both of which are kept in Salzburg today. On the one hand, the address in today's Salzburg Museum, as well as the copy in the collection of the Mozarteum Salzburg. The latter is attributed to the Salzburg horn player Joseph Michael Mayr (1751-1807p) as a copyist.
The title of both sources reads:
Concertos | a | Cornu Secundo Principale | Violino Primo | Violino Secundo | Oboe Primo & | Oboe secundo & obbligato | Cornu Primo & | Cornu Secu-ndo & | alto viola | with violin. | Del Sige: Rosetti.
The note ex dis is found at the top right.
There are some identical errors in both transcripts, often a missing natural on the note A instead of A flat. Perhaps proof that the source for the copies was actually notated in Dis, which, in contrast to E flat major, was notated in the musical text with only two flats as accidentals and the A flat as an accidental accidental.
The 3rd movement is marked "Rondeaux" in the copies, and "Rondo" in the new edition.
The solo horn is specified as a cornu secundo principale, i.e. a horn that uses the middle and low tone range of the horn in terms of range and pitch. Rosetti also composed in other solo concertos for the corno secundo, such as the concerto in E flat major C54.
Although Sterling Murray attributes this concerto unreservedly to Rosetti, it should be borne in mind that the short introduction and relatively short first movement tend to be against Rosetti's typical compositional style.
The orchestral parts are horn solo, 2 oboes, 2 horn tutti, 4x violin 1, 4x violin 2, 3x viola and 4x basso
