SONATA in Bb major K292 (196c)

In the absence of the lost original manuscript score of his bassoon sonata K292, it has been assumed that Mozart wrote it in Munich in 1775 for the amateur bassoonist Baron von Dürnitz as a companion piece to the bassoon concerto (K191), whose autograph score is also lost. The foundation for this seems to be that the catalogue of scores owned by von Dürnitz included 74 written by Mozart (but not one of them for bassoon); and further doubt in the story arises from the date of 4 June 1774 for K191 which appears in the publisher André's catalogue. So the time and place of origin of K292 remain in doubt.

The best evidence of Mozart's intentions therefore, is in the earliest published editions by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig and Hummel in Berlin. Even then, it is not possible to positively date either edition - Hummel's could be as late as 1814, but we can be fairly confident that neither was published during Mozart's lifetime. So we cannot be certain how he intended this sonata to be played. A bassoon accompanied by a cello seems to be the generally accepted scoring, and this is borne out by Breitkopf's current edition, but two bassoons or indeed two cellos would fit the bill just as well. Why then is the piece not called 'Duet'? From his operas, church music and other instrumental works, we know that Mozart made use of the 'thoroughbass' tradition - practically synonymous with 'figured bass' - but here without the figuring which can be implied from the second part as published and realized into a full keyboard accompaniment. This has been done by Michael Töpel in the present edition which has been prepared in accordance with the urtext principles of the New Mozart Edition 1975.

• Andante
• Rondo - Allegro

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