Rosetti, Antonio - RWV C56 Concerto for 2 Horns

Antonio Rosetti (1750 – 1792)

• Biography of Antonio Rosetti on french-horn.net (in German)
• Numbering of the horn concertos in editions by different publishers (in German)

Concerto for 2 Horns and Orchestra in E-flat major (RWV C56)

The attribution of this concerto to Antonio Rosetti has not been conclusively settled. To this day it is published and performed under the name of Joseph Haydn. This attribution by a Haydn scholar is, by current knowledge, untenable. Two points clearly speak against it:

1. On the only surviving copy (Zwierzina collection, now in D-Au), the concerto was attributed to Michael (!) Haydn only at a later date, as the different handwriting shows.

   

2. The opening of the concerto does not match the incipit of Joseph Haydn's lost concerto (entry in the Elssler catalogue).
   

Several indications speak in favour of Antonio Rosetti as the composer:

• Movement order: Allegro – Romance – Rondo 6/8
• Structure: e.g. the long introduction of the first movement and the coda ending of the third movement
• Scoring: two violas are a stylistic hallmark of the Wallerstein court. F. A. Hoffmeister also wrote his concerto for 2 horns with this scoring; it was dedicated to Nagel and Zwierzina, the horn players of the Wallerstein court.

The Rosetti scholar Prof. Dr. Sterling E. Murray also argues for Rosetti's authorship in a highly interesting article (German translation forthcoming). You can download his complete contribution from the Rosetti Forum as a PDF or read it online at french-horn.net (in German).

Orchestral parts: 5× Violin 1, 5× Violin 2, 2× Viola 1, 2× Viola 2, 4× Basso, 2 Oboes, 2 Horns tutti, 2 Horns solo

Audio sample