W. A. Mozart. Contemporary copy of the Symphony in D, arranged by the composer from the 'Haffner' Serenade

MOZART, WOLFGANG AMADEUS

Eighteenth-century Viennese score of the Symphony in D, first movement, arranged by the composer from the 'Haffner' Serenade, K.250 (248b), [1780s?]

the full score notated in brown ink by a single scribe on one 12-stave system per page, inscribed at the head "Sinfonia Del Sig. A. W. [sic] Mozart", a few entries in another hand, a number of cancellations, erasures and corrections

26 pages, oblong 4to (23 x 32cm), 12-stave Viennese papers, the paper-types apparently not in Tyson, pencil entry ("N.38") to first page, ties, no place or date [Vienna, 1780s?], last leaf loose

AN EARLY VIENNESE SCRIBAL COPY: Not recorded in the Neue Mozart Ausgabe [NMA IV/11/7, Kritischer Bericht].

During his last ten years, in Vienna, Mozart pressed into service at his concerts a number of earlier Salzburg works, one of which was the celebrated nine-movement Serenade in D ('Haffner'), K. 250 (248b), of 1776, Mozart's first great orchestral work, from which he arranged this "symphony". The present copy of the first movement is on Viennese paper and may date from Mozart's lifetime. An important collection of performing parts, including material indicating performance of the symphony version of the serenade in Vienna, is preserved in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. For his dating of the manuscript, we are very grateful to Dexter Edge.