Concerto for Piano No.26 in D major (K.537) (Coronation) (Study Score)

Mozart Concerto for Piano No.26 in D major (K.537) (Coronation) (Study Score)

Following the triumphant success of Don Giovanni in Prague, Mozart clearly tried to win back the favour of the Viennese public.  With this end in mind he composed the piano concerto K.537 in February 1788.  However, it is practically certain that there was no series of concerts in the Lent of 1788 and that this work was not then performed.  The new piano concerto therefore was for the time being denied a hearing; not until his journey to Berlin in 1789 did Mozart have the opportunity of performing the work: it was given at the Dresden court on 14 April.

Mozart probably also performed this concerto in Frankfurt on Main at a concert on 15 October 1790, held a few days after the coronation of Leopold II, hence its subsequent nickname "Coronation Concerto".

It is sufficiently well known that Mozart did not normally consider the written version of the solo part in his piano concertos to represent its complete and final form; particularly in the slow movements he left room for his own improvisatory variations during the actual performance.  In none of his autographs, however, apart from that of K.491 does this feature stand out so remarkably as in K.537.  Mozart not only made a large number of corrections, but he also omitted writing out the left hand part of the solo instrument for considerable stretches, mainly where (as in the second movement) it has a merely accompaniment function.

The version of these non-Mozartian passages familiar today was first published in 1794 by J. André of Offenbach in the first printed set of parts with the opus number 46.  The author of these passages is not known, but one is unlikely to be far wrong in considering J. André himself as responsible for them.  This is the version presented here, though employing the editorial principles of the New Mozart Edition, and in contradiction to previous editions of this concerto, these unauthentic passages are indicated by smaller type – not the very small type normally used for editorial additions, but a somewhat larger type which will not impair legibility.

- Urtext of the New Mozart Edition

- Full score & parts (BA5318), two-piano reduction (BA10495-90) and study score format 22.5 x 16.5cm (TP90) available for sale