Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)
Composed: Salzburg, circa early 1778

Ferdinand De Jean, a surgeon by profession, was an amateur flute player who commissioned Mozart to compose three flute quartets (K. 285, 285a, 285b) and two flute concertos for the princely sum of 200 florins.  The fee would be sufficient to see the Mozart family through the winter of 1777-78.  Mozart’s father Leopold offered his son the sage advice that it would be best to make haste and receive payment in full.  But naturally the son, a young man in his early twenties faced many distractions, his courtship of Aloisia Weber and the general tumult of life that gave him not a quiet moment.  Quality was another issue.  Mozart could not bear to write anything second rate.  Nor could he bear the tuning problems of the flute of his day.   In 1832, Theobald Boehm modernized the flute by creating a mechanism that ameliorated the intonation problems that plagued Mozart so.  For all of these reasons, exacerbated by family pressure, Mozart procrastinated.  Ultimately, Mozart assured his family in a scatological letter that he would compose the music while he was next on the toilet.  De Jean paid Mozart only 96 florins, not two hundred.  But the second of the flute concertos turned out to be less than new.  In fact, Mozart reworked the C-Major Concerto for Oboe by transposing it to D major and thus completed his obligation to De Jean.   Neither party comes out of this affair with entirely clean hands.
    From as early as the age of four, Mozart had certain conceptions of what a concerto should be like.  First of all, he thought it should be difficult and require much practice.  Its ideal performance should be like a miracle.  Then it must be brilliant, pleasing to the ear and natural.  The player of Mozart’s flute concertos strives for a “champagne articulation” that is effervescent and clear without being syrupy.  The concerto must also be dramatic in its articulation of moods and characters.  Indeed, the middle movement of this work has the character of an operatic aria that is preceded and followed by music of a quicker and sparkling character.  There are solo cadenzas and opportunities for some improvisation in the first and third movements for which some of the great flute players have either written or recorded what they like to do.  Given the agility, range and velocity of the instrument, each of these cadenzas can dazzle in its own way.