Mozart Flute Concerto

Mozart composed many great works during his life, three of which are flute concertos, and also numerous orchestrated pieces, as well as opera hits. However, there is a great deal of speculation about Mozart’s attitudes towards writing flute oriented pieces, and whether or not he “rearranged” an oboe concerto in order to compose a piece suitable for his client’s needs, making us wonder if it is right to call his second Flute Concerto in D Major K.314, one of Mozart’s original works composed to display great skill and technique on the flute. In this paper I will use a few critiques to accurately display the accusations people have made against Mozart, and provide my own feedback into this situation.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart can easily been

Some researchers say that Mozart ran out of time when composing this work, whilst others speculate that there was a problem with payment between Mozart and Ferdinand DeJean (1731-1797). Regardless of the reason, most concluded that the D major concerto is a mere transcription from Mozart’s “Oboe Concerto in C”. Douglas Worthen, a Southern Illinois University Carbondale Graduate Student, states that “In 1777, Mozart left for Munich, Mannheim, and Paris with his mother, in search of a position of stable employment. While in Mannheim, he became friends with members of the Mannheim orchestra, including concertmaster Christian Cannabich, Ignaz Holzbauer, and the flutist, 54 year-old Jean Baptiste Wendling. Wendling introduced Mozart to a Dutch amateur flutist named Ferdinand DeJean, who commissioned Mozart to write some quartets and concertos for flute “ (CITATION). This explains how Mozart met the amateur flute player that commissioned him, even though Mozart is seemingly bitter about composing flute works. One could almost conclude that Mozart reworked the oboe concerto for flute because he simply hated composing for flute. The piano transcription book entitled “W.A. Mozart” edited by Trevor Wye, explains “In a letter to his father on 14th of February 1778, Mozart wrote about the flute: ‘whenever I have to write music for an instrument I dislike, I immediately lose interest’” (CITATION). There are three possible reasons why Mozart could have made a comment like this. The first being that Mozart was aggravated by the fact that DeJean had not yet paid him in full for his commissions. Secondly, Mozart was not amused about writing for an amateur player as concluded by Kathleen Goll-Wilson and Robert Rawlins in the article “Mozart’s Flute Music” by saying “What probably put Mozart out of sorts was writing for the amateur flutist who couldn’t handle the tricky instrument;