Piano solo
SKU:
HH.HH566-SOL
Composed
by J.N. Hummel and
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Edited by Sarah Jenner.
Playing score. Edition HH
Music Publishers
#HH566-SOL. Published by
Edition HH Music
Publishers
(HH.HH566-SOL).
ISBN
9790708185819.
Moza
rt’s final three
symphonies were composed,
according to
Mozart’s autograph
Verzeichnüß, in the
space of a few weeks,
from late June to early
August 1788. During that
year the 11-year-old
Hummel was a resident
pupil of Mozart and would
have been a daily witness
to the creation of these
foundational works of the
Western musical canon.
There is an almost total
lack of documentary
evidence concerning the
circumstances of these
works, however, which has
led to considerable
speculation as to their
origins, early
performances and
reception. There are
three plausible scenarios
for the genesis of these
symphonies: that they
were written for a series
of subscription concerts
scheduled for autumn
1788; that Mozart wrote
them with the
(unfulfilled) intention
of publication as an
opus; that they may have
been prepared in advance
of Mozart’s
projected visit to London
with his British friends
the Storace family,
Thomas Attwood and
Michael Kelly (again
unfulfilled). A
contemporaray review in
The Harmonicum (1823) of
Hummel’s piano
arrangements of these
works notes, approvingly,
that they show his
perfect knowledge of the
instrument and his nice
[= fastidious]
discrimination in
selecting the most
effective parts from the
score in those places
where the whole could not
be taken.