Sinfonia concertante in E♭ major (K. Anh.C 14.01)
von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The Sinfonia concertante in E♭ major (K. Anh.C 14.01, sometimes also cited as K. 297b) is a concertante work for four wind soloists and orchestra, traditionally linked to Mozart’s Paris journey of 1778—but today regarded as spurious (incorrectly assigned) in its surviving form.[1] What survives is a complete three-movement score, yet no secure Mozart autograph transmission supports it.[1]
What Is Known
The work listed as K. Anh.C 14.01 survives as an extant, three-movement Sinfonia concertante in E♭ major for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon and orchestra.[1] In the Digital Mozart Edition’s Köchel database, its authenticity is explicitly labeled “incorrectly assigned.”[1] The same record associates it with Paris, 1778, while leaving the named composer as “unknown,” reflecting the current editorial stance that the received text cannot be securely credited to Mozart.[1]
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Even so, its long-standing connection with 1778 is not arbitrary: Mozart wrote from Paris in April 1778 about composing a sinfonia concertante for wind virtuosi (in a different solo lineup than the later oboe–clarinet version).[2] For Mozart’s development, this Paris moment matters: he was actively testing how far he could blend symphonic breadth with concerto-style solo display—an aesthetic that would flower securely in authenticated concertante writing soon afterwards.
Musical Content
As transmitted, K. Anh.C 14.01 is laid out in three movements—Allegro, Adagio, and Andantino con Variazioni—in the manner of a full-scale concerto or symphonie concertante.[3] The scoring places the four solo winds in rotating prominence, often pairing them in conversational duos and then combining them as a quartet against the string body; the genre’s characteristic effect is a public, theatrical “ensemble of soloists” rather than a single protagonist.[1]
Because the surviving text is considered spurious, stylistic observations must remain cautious: listeners may well hear turns of phrase that resemble Mozart’s Paris-era concertante language, yet the work’s present orchestration and detailing are widely treated as the product of later handling or misattribution rather than a secure reflection of Mozart’s autograph intentions.[1][2]
[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Köchel-Verzeichnis entry for KV Anh. C 14.01 (status, dating, instrumentation, authenticity label).
[2] Wikipedia: background on the debated linkage to Mozart’s Paris 1778 wind sinfonia concertante (lost original; later transmission).
[3] Digital Mozart Edition (NMA) table of contents for NMA X/29/1, listing the three movements for K. Anh. C 14.01.