Hofmann, Leopold (1738-1793)

The present concerto, advertised in Supplement V (1770) of the Breitkopf Catalogue , probably dates from the second half of the 1760s. It is a small-scale work, scored for solo cello, two violins and basso, but, like all the composer's concertos, makes considerable technical and musical demands on the soloist. This edition is based on the sole surviving source, a set of contemporary manuscript parts preserved in Stift Heiligenkreuz, one of the greatest of the Austrian monastic houses. The parts are professionally copied but contain a rather unusual number of errors and omissions, particularly in the second and third movements. No wrapper survives but the parts clearly attribute the work to Leopold Hofmann. In the absence of the autograph score and an authentic set of parts the edition presents as faithfully as possible the intentions of the composer as transmitted in this source. As is usual in Hofmann's concertos there are no dynamic markings in the solo sections; these are left to the discretion and good taste of the performer. The style and notation of articulation and dynamic markings have been standardized throughout, and, where missing from the source, reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets. Like most eighteenth century sources, the present manuscript is very inconsistent in its notation of appoggiature ; these too have been standardized to minimize confusion. Obvious wrong notes have been corrected without comment; editorial emendations with no authority from the source are placed within brackets. Allan Badley