Mozart's Flute Concerto No. 2 in D major, K. 314 (K. 285d)

Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Flute Concerto No. 2 in D Major is an adaptation of the original oboe concerto.



For nearly two centuries, experts thought that Mozart's Flute Concerto No. 2 in D major, K. 314 (K. 285d) was originally composed for the flute in Mannheim in 1778. However, in 1952 Bernhard Paumgartner, musicologist, cogently proved that the flute concerto was the alteration of Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C major, K.314/271k, which was composed for Giuseppe Ferlendis, oboist in the Orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg.

Commissioned by Dutch flautist Ferdinand De Jean (1731–1797) for four flute quartets and three flute concerti, which Mozart only completed three quartets and only one new flute concerto, Mozart rearranged the oboe concerto he had written a year earlier as the second flute concerto instead of creating a new second one. Although with substantial changes to it to fit what the composer deemed flute-like, De Jean did not pay Mozart for this concerto because it was based on the oboe concerto.

"Mozart's Flute Concerto in D major, K. 314, is an honest reworking of the oboe piece, not merely a transposition from C major to D major. The composer's sensitivity to the differences between the flute and the oboe enabled him to produce a flute part so idiomatically composed that subsequent generations praised the work as an original flute concerto. The concerto is scored for an orchestra of two oboes, two horns and strings. The first movement is far more interesting than that of the G major concerto, K. 313. In K. 314, the orchestration is scored in a lighter, more transparent fashion, highlighting the soloist and giving the numerous recurrent rhythmic figures more presence, especially the falling passage in the orchestra that first introduces the solo flute. Mozart's central slow movement is elegiac, with the flute placed throughout in its most liquid range. Mozart once wrote that he despised the flute, but the elegance of this movement makes this difficult to believe. The ebullient, Haydnesque finale is a Rondo in a quick 2/4 meter, with a rondo-theme that is bouncy and jagged. Most notable is the beginning of the central episode in which a tune based on the rondo-theme is developed in three-part counterpoint," says John Palmer.

Related Articles
Flute Concerto No. 2 in D major, K. 314 (K. 285d) from Answer.com
Oboe Concerto in C major, K.314/271k from Wikipedia, IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library, and Youtube.