Very probably by Mozart – CD release by Tobias Feldmann with WDR Symphony Orchestra
On the album “Mozart’s Journey to Paris”, Tobias Feldmann, together with Reinhard Goebel and the WDR Symphony Orchestra, explores the traces of Mozart in the years 1777/78, with a recording of the Violin Concerto KV 271 providing an illuminating insight into the composer’s process of maturation. (release: 16.5., Hänssler classic)
Academic views on the Violin Concerto KV 271a in D major are split. Is it really an original work by Mozart himself? Here is a quick summary of the facts. The piece has come down to us only in two 19th century sources that are not autographs: a set of parts with score from Paris and a score found in Berlin. All the same, the work has been included in the modern Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, albeit with the note “of doubtful authenticity”.
With this recording by Tobias Feldmann and the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Reinhard Goebel, those who believe the work is truly by Mozart can now claim the backing of prominent experts whose musical and musicological credentials are beyond doubt. What is more, the piece displays numerous characteristics typical of the composer’s personal style, while, according to Feldmann, it also shows signs of compositional development in comparison with Mozart’s five preceding works in the genre: “Primarily, it differs from the other violin concertos in its unbelievable virtuosity. Many passages are much, much more exposed than in the famous violin concertos. In the second movement, there are tenths in high registers, and the first and last movements sometimes contain breakneck passages that always call for classical nobility and elegance despite all the technical obstacles.”
Reinhard Goebel, the grand seigneur of the contemporary early music scene, has a lot of experience looking for and finding clues in the dense jungle of baroque and classical scores. In his very readable booklet text for the new CD, he draws attention to the fact, for example, that a small concert title page in Mozart’s hand with the date of July 16, 1777 accompanies the Paris copies of the piece.
Goebel’s choice of Tobias Feldmann for this recording was very deliberate. The two musicians have collaborated for many years, starting some seven years ago with a project involving the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
The track list is rounded out by an unusual arrangement of the Sonata for Piano Four-Hands in C Major KV 521 as a Sinfonia concertante by Mozart’s pupil Ignaz von Seyfried. This selection of works makes the album a must for every Mozart enthusiast and repertoire hunter. And all the more so because one can hear that Goebel and Feldmann here present a Mozart reading informed by the highest respect for the score coupled with a modern interpretational approach. According to Feldmann, the challenge with Mozart in particular is “that it has to be imagined spontaneously every time and calls for a certain off-the-cuff playful humour in the dialogues between the soloist and the orchestra that needs to be audible in every take if possible.”
