Hofmann, Leopold (1738-1793)

The present concerto is without question Leopold Hofmann's best-known work. Ironically, it owes its modest fame to a misattribution to Haydn which has been perpetuated by publishers and performers for over two hundred years. The rather chequered historical career of the Flute Concerto D1 can be traced to an error in Supplement VI (1771) of the Breitkopf Catalogue where it is attributed to Haydn. The attribution was corrected in Supplement XIV (1781) and it is unlikely that the error had a great impact on the dissemination of MS copies as Ringmacher correctly attributed D1 to Hofmann as early as 1773. If anything, one might have expected a greater number of copies to have survived. Only one MS, preserved in the Exner collection at Zittau, has come down to us as a 'Haydn' work and yet, in spite of the incorrect attribution and the absence of horn parts, this copy seems to have been the authority for most modern editions. A copy of D1 (as Haydn) appears in Breitkopf und Hrtel's Versteigerungskatalog of 1836 (Nr.1022) and Pohl mentions this copy in his MS notes on Haydn preserved in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien. Flute Concerto D1 has attracted the attention of a number of scholars from Fuchs onward, but the question of Haydn's authorship was not finally settled until 1933. In his pioneering article 'Haydn's Chamber Music and the Flute' ( Music Quarterly 1933, p.453 ), Carleton Sprague-Smith discussed the background to the long confusion over authorship and based his conclusion on the later, corrected entry in Breitkopf; he appeared unaware of the extant copies correctly attributed to Hofmann. In addition to the Zittau 'Haydn' source and a C major version of the work for oboe preserved in the Bartok Bela Zenemvszeti Szakiskila Knyvtr in Budapest (shelfmark 1818), only two copies of D1 are known: the first of these is preserved in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preuischer Kulturbesitz Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn- Archiv (Mus.ms.10724/25) within a wrapper which reads: " No.47 / Concerto in D / a / Flauto Traverso / Violinis 2bg / Cornibus 2bg in D / Viola / e / Basso / Dall' Sigl: Leopold Hoffmann / B.A.G". (unidentified); the second copy is in the Thurn und Taxis Hofbibliothek in Regensburg (Hofmann 18):"Violino Primo / Violino Secondo / Viola Obbligata / Flauto traverso / di Concerto / Corni in D / Basso / Del Sig / Leopoldo Hoffmamnn [sic]" . Both copies agree in most details although the Berlin source contains a number of glaring errors in the orchestral parts. In the absence of both the autograph score and an authentic set of parts, this edition presents as faithfully as possible the intentions of the composer as transmitted in the two sources. 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 standardised throughout, and, where missing from the source, markings have been reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets. Like most eighteenth-century sources, the present manuscripts are inconsistent in their notation of appoggiature ; these too have been standardised to minimise confusion. Obvious wrong notes have been corrected without comment; editorial emendations with no authority from the source are placed within brackets. Allan Badley