Antonio Rosetti (1750–1792)
- Biography of Antonio Rosetti
- List of Rosetti's horn concertos with their different numbering systems
Concerto in E major for Horn (RWV C 52)
This first edition is a small sensation for all friends of Rosetti. The horn concerto was considered lost until now. It was documented only in a print by Le Menu et Boyer in Paris from 1782. This publisher issued four of Rosetti's horn concertos in print; the present one appeared as No. 1. No autograph source or manuscript copy exists. The publication of these concertos was certainly also made possible by Rosetti's stay in Paris.
Unfortunately, only one copy of this print is known to have survived, held in the Paris National Library. It shares the fate of several other horn concertos by various composers preserved in Paris: it is incomplete. The solo horn and solo violin are missing, which makes a reconstruction impossible.
The Austrian abbey of Seitenstetten holds a supposed concerto for two horns in E major by Giovanni Punto, unfortunately lacking the first solo horn part. On examination, the editor first established that it is a concerto for a single horn, namely Corno secundo (i.e. low horn). It was thus the same case as Concerto C 54: a Corno primo was wrongly believed to be missing. The title page attributes the concerto “dal Signore Punto”. How this attribution came about is unknown. The horn soloist Punto was, however, notorious for occasionally publishing or performing another composer's work under his own name. Perhaps Punto played this concerto and concealed the true composer.
On further comparison, the editor found that the second violin and first oboe of the concerto are identical with the surviving parts of the Paris print. A new concerto by Rosetti is thus waiting impatiently to be rediscovered by interested horn players.
Thanks are also due to Father Franz Hörmann and Seitenstetten Abbey for permission to publish the work.
Concerto in E major for Horn, RWV C 52 – audio sample: