The Adélaïde Concerto is the nickname of a

violin concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque music, Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first dev ...

D major D major (or the key of D) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor. The D major scale is: : ...

attributed to

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

and given the catalogue number K. Anh. 294a in the third edition of the standard

Köchel catalogue The Köchel catalogue (german: Köchel-Verzeichnis, links=no) is a chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, originally created by Ludwig Ritter von Köchel, in which the entries are abbreviated ''K.'', or ''KV''. The n ...

of Mozart's works. Unknown until the 20th century, this concerto was later discovered to be a spurious work by

Marius Casadesus Marius Casadesus (24 October 1892 – 13 October 1981) was a French violinist and composer. He was the brother of Henri Casadesus, uncle of the famed pianist Robert Casadesus, and grand-uncle to Jean Casadesus. Marius Casadesus achieved perhap ...

. It was given a new number in the sixth edition of the Köchel catalogue, K. Anh.C 14.05, as part of the Anhang C designated for spurious or doubtful works which have been attributed to Mozart at some time.

Background

First published in 1933 in a version for

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

, the concerto was said by Casadesus, the "editor", to have been arranged from a manuscript by the ten-year-old Mozart, with a title page containing a

dedication Dedication is the act of consecrating an altar, temple, church, or other sacred building. Feast of Dedication The Feast of Dedication, today Hanukkah, once also called "Feast of the Maccabees," is a Jewish festival observed for eight days ...

Madame Adélaïde Marie Adélaïde de France, (23 March 1732 – 27 February 1800) was a French princess, the sixth child and fourth daughter of King Louis XV and Queen Marie. As a legitimate daughter of the King, Adélaïde was a ''fille de France''. She wa ...

, the fourth daughter of King

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached ...

. Conveniently enough, this alleged manuscript was never accessible to later enquirers such as

Alfred Einstein Alfred Einstein (December 30, 1880February 13, 1952) was a German-American musicologist and music editor. He was born in Munich and fled Nazi Germany after Hitler's ''Machtergreifung'', arriving in the United States by 1939. He is best known for ...

and

Friedrich Blume Friedrich Blume (5 January 1893, in Schlüchtern, Hesse-Nassau – 22 November 1975, in Schlüchtern) was professor of musicology at the University of Kiel from 1938 to 1958. He was a student in Munich, Berlin and Leipzig, and taught in the last ...

, but Casadesus described it, according to Blume, as "an autograph manuscript in two staves, of which the upper stave carries the solo part and the lower carries the bass." In what was surely a nose-tweak at those fooled by this imposture, Casadesus also reported that "The upper stave is notated in D, the lower in E". Since the violin is not a

transposing instrument A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which music notation is not written at concert pitch (concert pitch is the pitch on a non-transposing instrument such as the piano). For example, playing a written middle C on a transposing ...

, there would have been no obvious technical reason for the upper staff to be written in a different key from the lower staff, especially for what sounds more like a

short score Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, Arabi ...

than a completed score. Despite the lack of

provenance Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...

, Blume was thoroughly taken in by the concerto, although Einstein professed himself skeptical. The latter referred to it as "a piece of mystification ''a la Kreisler''". (

Fritz Kreisler Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was know ...

, the famed violinist, had written several pieces in the styles of composers such as

Gaetano Pugnani Gaetano Pugnani (27 November 1731 – 15 July 1798, full name: Giulio Gaetano Gerolamo Pugnani) was an Italian composer and violinist. Biography Gaetano Pugnani was born in 1731 in Turin, the city where he spent most of his life, son of Giova ...

Giuseppe Tartini Giuseppe Tartini (8 April 1692 – 26 February 1770) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era born in the Republic of Venice. Tartini was a prolific composer, composing over a hundred of pieces for the violin with the majority of ...

, and

Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread ...

which he had originally passed off as compositions by these older masters.) Many others expressed similar doubts, but only in 1977 during a copyright dispute did Casadesus admit his authorship of this alleged "Mozart" work. The "Adélaïde Concerto" is sometimes erroneously credited to Marius' brother

Henri Casadesus Henri-Gustave Casadesus (30 September 1879, Paris – 31 May 1947, Paris) was a violist, viola d'amore player, composer, and music publisher. Early life Casadesus received his early musical instruction with Albert Lavignac and studied viola wi ...

, perhaps because of many other spurious musical pieces he and other members of the Casadesus family composed in the names of

Johann Christian Bach Johann Christian Bach (September 5, 1735 – January 1, 1782) was a German composer of the Classical era, the eighteenth child of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the youngest of his eleven sons. After living in Italy for several years, Bach mov ...

, George Frideric Handel, and other composers.

Structure

: \relative c' The concerto has three movements:

References

Notes References Sources * (source of information about copyright dispute above). * (Source of other details on concerto. Published before Casadesus' revelation of his authorship.) *

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicology, musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), whi ...

, ''The New Grove Mozart'' (New York: Norton, 1983), p. 206. . (Source of catalogue numbers.) *''Mozart: The Violin Concertos, Vol. 3.'' Mela Tenenbaum, violin; Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra conducted by Richard Kapp. ESSAY Recordings, catalogue number CD-1072. (Source of information on tempos of movements.) *

Background

Structure

References

Further reading