Leopold Mozart: Horn Concerto

Day 211

Leopold Mozart: Horn concerto in D

Michael Thompson

Philharmonia Orchestra

Christopher Warren-Green

Leopold Mozart would have his place in musical history even if he were not Mozart’s father. His treatise on violin playing was an important book at the time of its publication but has taken an even greater importance in recent years because of what it tells us about performance practice in the early classical era.

But of course it is as Mozart’s father that he is best known. Perhaps these days his role in promoting his son’s early genius is seen more as exploitation rather than support but there is no doubting that his endeavours were responsible for Mozart’s early fame.  As a composer he soon left his father behind.  

Leopold’s horn concerto is an extraordinary example of very high horn writing which brings to mind some of Haydn’s experiments. But in purely musical terms it seems unremakable. It is typical example of early classical style - assured but with no particular distinction.If it were not a horn concerto but, say, a violin concerto I doubt that it would have even the tenuous place that it has in the repertoire.