First page of manuscript of Mozart's Adagio and Rondo K.617 in the Stefan Zweig collection of the British Library (Zweig MS 61)

The Adagio and Rondo, K. 617, is a quintet composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello.[1] Completed on May 23, 1791 (the date indicated in Mozart's own list of his works[2]), it was written for Marianne Kirchgessner, a blind glass harmonica virtuoso, who played the first performance in the Burgtheater Akademie on June 10, 1791, and subsequently performed it at the Kärtnertortheater on August 19, 1791.[1]

The autograph manuscript is in the British Library as part of the Stefan Zweig Collection. It was purchased by Zweig from a Berlin auction house in 1930.[3]

The work was first published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1799.[1]

The adagio, in C minor, is 58 bars long, while the rondo (C major) contains 230 bars.[1]

According to Willi Apel, "Among various compositions for the glass harmonica, Mozart's Adagio in C major (K. 356) and Adagio and Rondo (K. 617)...both composed in 1791, are the most interesting. They seem to require an instrument equipped with a keyboard mechanism such as that constructed in 1784."[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Köchel 1964, p. 703.
  2. ↑ Federhofer 1957, p. 79.
  3. ↑ British Library website Zwig MS 61, accessed 17 December 2022
  4. ↑ Apel, Willi (1969). "Glass harmonica", Harvard Dictionary of Music, p.347. Harvard. ISBN 9780674375017.

Sources

  • Köchel, Ludwig Ritter von Köchel (1964). Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis sämtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amade Mozarts : nebst Angabe der verlorengegangenen, angefangenen, von fremder Hand bearbeiteten, zweifelhaften und unterschobenen Kompositionen. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. pp. 703–704.
  • Federhofer, Hellmut (1957). Kritsche Bericht: Quintette, Quartette und Trios mit Klavier und mit Glasharmonika. Vol. Serie VII, Werkgruppe 22, Abteilung 1. Kassel: Bärenreiter. pp. 79–82.
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