Köchel catalog · K. 488b

Movement to a Piano Concerto in A (fragment, in conjunction with K. 488) (K. 488b)

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Unfinished portrait of Mozart by Lange, 1782-83
Mozart, unfinished portrait by Joseph Lange, c. 1782–83
Köchel Number
K9 488b | K6 488b
Genre
Concertos
Form
Piano Concertos
Key
A Major
Date
March 1786
Place
Vienna
Age
30

The Concerto movement in A for clavier and orchestra (K. 488b) is a short surviving draft—only 23 bars—linked with Mozart’s work on the finale of Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488 in Vienna (late 1785 to early 1786). It offers a rare glimpse of Mozart’s “discarded” solutions while he was refining one of his most subtle concerto designs.

What Is Known

K. 488b is transmitted as an autograph fragment (dated in the Mozart sources to Vienna, November 1785–February 1786) and is explicitly connected with Mozart’s search for a final movement theme for Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488.[1] The surviving music breaks off after 23 bars and is described in the Mozarteum work record as the opening of a moderately fast rondo movement.[1] The same record gives an orchestral palette consistent with Mozart’s mature Viennese concerto practice: flute, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, solo keyboard, and strings.[1] The fragment is published in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe among concerto-movement beginnings rather than as a performable completion.[2]

Musical Content

What survives is simply the start of a rondo: an initial thematic statement and its immediate continuation, enough to suggest an outgoing A-major, Allegretto-to-Allegro character, but not enough to establish the full refrain–episode plan typical of Mozart’s concerto finales.[1] Even so, the scoring indicated by the Mozarteum entry—especially the presence of clarinets—places the sound-world squarely alongside K. 488’s celebrated “warm” orchestral coloring and Mozart’s late-winter 1785/86 concerto style in Vienna.[1]

Sources

[1] Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum (Köchel-Verzeichnis): work record for K. 488b, including dating, instrumentation, and description (breaks off after 23 bars; rondo beginning; linked to K. 488 finale).

[2] Digital Mozart Edition (DME), Neue Mozart-Ausgabe: Table of contents for NMA V/15/8 showing K. Anh. 63 (488b) as the beginning of a rondo in A for clavier and orchestra (fragment).