KV.Anh C25.02 (K511a) Piano Rondo in Bb MozartForum Articles

Dennis Pajot

The history of this piece is a great example how musicological guesses, assumptions and hypothesis over the years grows into "fact". The Rondo has been credited to 3 different composers as fact over time. Reading all the correspondence of this little insignificant piece also shows the ugly side of when scholars take things personal.

The manuscript of this Rondo is in the British Museum, bound in a volume with 2 known Mozart autographs (De Profundis K93/AnhA22 and the c-minor string Quintet K406), along with 3 other attributed Mozart works--3 Piano Pieces K⁶ = Anh C24.01, Piano Trio K^{6 =}Anh C22.01, and Minuet for Orchestra Anh C13.01--in a volume originally entitled "W.A. Mozart. Compositions. Autograph". The original description of the manuscript of the Rondo for the British Museum Catalogue (1882) reads "a movement in B flat for pianoforte solo, apparently Allegro. The bass has not been completely added". (This refers to measures 106-121, which being a repetition of measures 9-24 could be easily filled in). The catalogue only dates the piece as "18th Century".

The origin history of the 4 manuscripts (these 4--Rondo, Trio, 3 Piano Pieces and Minuet-- are the only ones referred to from now on) was said to be that the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria presented them to Sultan Abdul Aziz in 1867. The Sultan presented them to his musical director Guatelli Pasha. Julian Marshall, an English collector, purchased them from the Pasha's son. The British Museum later acquired the entire Marshall collection in 1880 and 1881.

Paul Waldersee in his edition of Köchel (K² 1905) added the Rondo for Piano to the main part of the catalogue. Although he did not attempt to date the piece he gave it the number 511a, thus immediately after the Rondo in a-minor K511, composed March 1787.

Wyzewa/St.Foix studied the manuscripts and in 1910/11 published articles on the Piano Trio. They at first believed the Trio to be a Mozart adaptation of a work by a different composer. However in 1911 Charles Malherbe, librarian of the Paris Opera, inspected a facsimile of the manuscripts and declared none of the 4 were in Mozart's handwriting. In 1920 St.Foix declared with "absolute certainty" the 4 pieces were the original manuscripts of unpublished compositions by Beethoven. "The character of the handwriting, the methods of composition, a certain mixture of original ideas and a virtuosity, often brilliant, at times tawdry, all agree, all unite to convince us that we are face to face with extremely curious and important specimens of the art of the young Beethoven", dating from the period 1785 to 1795. In addition, the Minuet for Orchestra (K25a) was Nr.1 of 12 Minuets for orchestra written by Beethoven about 1795 in Vienna. [However later this Minuet has been identified as not being by Ludwig but by his brother Kasper Anton Karl]. St.Foix placed the Rondo very soon after Beethoven took up residence in Vienna, or just before his departure from Bonn, in 1791. The Piano Rondo in question according to St.Foix bears some resemblance to an Aria in Cosi fan tutte [having a recording of the Rondo, I find it very, very slight]. In a detailed description of the Rondo, St.Foix uses terms such as "in true Beethoven fashion" and "essentially Beethoven". The piece (along with the other 3) was issued under St.Foix's editorship (only 500 copies) in Paris in 1926.

In 1936 Einstein in K³banished all the pieces to the Anhang, our Piano Rondo as Anhang 284i.

When Jack Werner studied the 4 manuscripts in the British Museum (apparently St.Foix only had seen facsimile) he discovered the manuscripts were originally entered as being by Mozart, but someone later added "attributed to" and the word "autograph" was scored out.

Sir Donald Tovey described all the pieces as "interesting early Beethoven arcana" adding "how any sane person could ascribe them to Mozart is explicable only by the decline in German musical scholarship". Otto Erich Deutsch--of course German--reminded readers only one German musical scholar--Count Waldersee--had been concerned with the Mozart period of the manuscripts and he followed the attribution of the Turkish band leader, the English collector and the authorities of the British Museum. Deutsch thought it "wiser not to associate human fallibility with national propensities".

In 1945 Otto Erich Deutsch cast doubt on the whole story of the 4 manuscripts. He stated the Austrian Emperor certainly had no such manuscripts and would not give a musical manuscript to a foreign visitor. Anyway to present the Sultan with a dubious or spurious manuscript "might have caused a third Turkish siege of Vienna". Deutsch apparently never considered if the Emperor had the manuscripts, he could have certainly believed they were authentic Mozart.

D.R. Wakeling and C. L. Cudworth of Cambridge University discovered that the 3 Piano Pieces (K.Anh 41a) were actually from a Ballet of Leopold Kozeluch, first produced in February 1794 at the Burg Theater in Vienna, and published in piano score in May 1794. Deutsch did not think Beethoven transcribed these pieces for Piano Duet and did not think the writing in any of the 4 manuscripts was at all characteristic of Beethoven; in fact all 4 manuscripts appeared to be written by various hands. Referring to the Rondo and Piano Trio, Deutsch wrote "the genuiness of these two works became subject to suspicion". In 1947 Einstein (in K^3a would declare Deutsch "proved" the pieces were by Kozeluch.

In 1946 St.Foix replied saying his faith in the authenticity of the manuscripts as being Beethoven's "remained entirely unshaken", believing the young Beethoven could have "appropriated" the Kozeluch pieces from the Ballet to try his hand at a Piano Duet.

In 1950 Werner issued a reprinting of the Rondo, in Beethoven's name, and Deutsch again came out against its authenticity, finishing with "Truth travels slowly, finds hospitality nowhere"

Of course Werner fired back. He believed Deutsch's allegations against Beethoven were on the "flimsiest of grounds", and Werner preferred to accept the evidence of St.Foix and Tovey rather than Deutsch's suspicions. If Deutsch had proof the Piano Rondo was by Kozeluch, let him bring it forth. As to the Piano Duet pieces originating from Kozeluch's Ballet, was it not possible Kozeluch stole the pieces from Beethoven--thus one of the reasons for Beethoven later dismissing him as "miserabilis?" In the end Werner believed "no reasonable person can, on the evidence, deny that all 4 manuscripts are in Beethoven's hand, but also that they are original works by him".

Of course Deutsch again fired back. Among other things, he noted the Marcia Lugubre of the Piano Duet in the British Museum only contained the first 6 bars and the remaining staffs are blank. "Kozeluch's imagination would have been considerable to realize the other 32 bars of Beethoven's piano duet". Deutsch again stated the handwriting of the 4 manuscripts is not Mozart's or Beethoven's, but admitted it is also not Kozeluch's.

In Kinsky's Thematic Catalogue of Beethoven's works (1955) the Rondo in B^b for Piano was listed as Anhang 6, remarking as Deutsch showed the Piano Duet was by Kozeluch, also this Rondo might not be by Beethoven, but reported it is not an autograph of the young Beethoven.

K⁶ (1965) placed the Rondo as Anh C25.02, as being by Leopold Kozeluch--no maybes or question marks. In the Remarks section it repeats Einstein's statement of the work. In the Literature section it only cites Deutsch's 1945 Music & Letters article, disregarding all the other correspondence on the subject (even more than I have cited above).

So one reading K⁶ certainly assumes this piece is by Kozeluch, no doubt about it. Actually there is no more to attribute it to Kozeluch than there was to Beethoven, or originally to Mozart. As a matter of fact, to this day Mozart's name on the manuscript is the only real link to any of the 3 composers.

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KV.Anh C25.02 (K511a) Piano Rondo in Bb

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