The Charleston Gazette, West Virginia
March 27, 2003
This is a story of a flute player, cheese, horns and death. Not in that order.
Composers don't always leave a tidy desk when they die. And their unfinished projects can be tantalizing - so tantalizing that other composers will pick up the threads of compositional thought and try to weave them into a coherent final tapestry. Incomplete symphonies by Mahler and Elgar were worked up into final form and then performed in the 20th century. Yet composers have been completing the work of deceased comrades for longer than that. Mozart's incomplete Requiem, finished by his student Sussmayr, may be the most famous example.
Mozart also left a horn concerto in D major unfinished when he died in 1791. The piece had a complete first movement, but no slow movement. The finale was only partially completed. Sussmayr finished the finale, and the whole thing was published as the "First" Horn Concerto, even though it was the last of four that Mozart wrote.
When Seneca Chamber Orchestra hornist Marsha Palmer was asked to perform the piece at Sunday afternoon's concert at Christ Church United Methodist, her research led to an interesting discovery: Sussmayr wasn't the only musician to create a version of the piece. Henrik Wiese, principal flute of the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra in Germany, had just recently worked up a new version.
Palmer tracked down Wiese through his Web site, and in a few days had the score and parts to his version of the finale. Wiese himself will attend the concert Sunday. I interviewed Wiese by e-mail about his work on the master's unfinished piece.
How exactly does a flutist decide to make an edition of a famous, unfinished horn concerto?
"I have always been attracted to Mozart concertos," Wiese responded. "The 27 piano concertos are in my opinion the most aesthetical music ever written. I began studying all Mozart concertos in order to learn everything about Mozart. His four horn concertos were written for a hornist Mozart knew already from Salzburg. His name was Leutgeb. He ran a shop selling cheese and he appeared as a soloist on his instrument. The D Major Horn Concerto was never completed", said Wiese, "because of illness and more interesting commissions, such as the opera 'The Magic Flute.' [Mozart] made a draft of the last movement, a rondo. The draft embraces the entire structure of the movement - 127 bars. Bars 1 to 40 are complete in the solo part and the string parts. From bar 41 to the end, Mozart had only written either the melody line of the solo horn or the 1st violin. The wind parts - 2 oboes, 2 bassoons - are totally missing."
Wiese was editing the complete horn concertos for Henle Edition in Munich. When the problem of the incomplete rondo came up, he proposed a different version than Sussmayr's - his own.
Wiese thought it could be interesting to approach the rondo from his viewpoint as an orchestra wind player, as he had played comparable music many times.
To create his version, he got a copy of the autograph manuscript, which is located in Krakow, Poland, he said. Then he called on his experience playing all those Mozart operas.
"I am flutist at a great opera house and have the occasion to play Mozart's well-known operas many times. The more often you play it, the more details you learn about Mozart's style and writing.
As in the other horn concertos, I expect that every appearance of the rondo theme should be the same. For all other parts, it took me about nine months to find a perfectly fitting structure. Every single note I added can be found in original Mozart in comparable situations. After finishing the piano part, I orchestrated it in a way I am used to it from my opera experience."
To be authentic, Wiese had to include something else in the published score of the piece - Mozart's jocular, playful exhortations to hornist Leutgeb. They provided a running commentary in the original horn part (which I have shortened and edited for a family newspaper):
"For you, Mr. Silly Ass - lively - fast - carry on like that - good - have courage - what? already finished? - your turn - you beast, what a monstrosity - poor chap! - coffee-break! - HELP! - breathe a bit - Give me at least one good note - bravo, bravo - long may he live! - for the last time with it - Stop, I pray you! - Oh damn - Bravura again? - Bravo - oh a bleating trill! - Finished? - Thank heavens! - Enough, enough!"