Question: Albert,
Do you know where I might find a written out cadenza for W.A. Mozart’s Concerto No. 5 in D Major, K. 175? I’m aware that Mozart wrote one out for his sister but I am not sure if one was ever published. However, on several recordings the cadenzas are the same, which makes me think that there is a score out there somewhere. I have the opportunity to play it but I’m uncomfortable writing my own.
Thank you very much.
– Kevin
Albert’s reply: Mozart indeed wrote his own cadenzas to K. 175. (This concerto is labeled No. 5 but it is actually Mozart’s first piano concerto; the first four were merely arrangements of solo sonatas by other composers, which the boy Mozart made.)
You can download Mozart’s cadenzas to this concerto at the Internet Music Score Library Project, which offers a large library of out-of-print sheet music. These are older editions whose copyright has expired, so they are not up to modern editorial standards. Their scan quality also varies, but these considerations hardly diminish the usefulness of the library.
The first two cadenzas in the collection are for the first and second movements of K. 175 – Mozart did not write a cadenza for the third movement.
My teacher Paul Badura-Skoda, a noted Mozart interpreter and scholar, wrote cadenzas to many of the concertos, including the third movement of K. 175. His collection of cadenzas to Mozart’s piano concertos is published by Bärenreiter.
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