Larghetto and Allegro in E♭ for Two Keyboards (fragment completed by Maximilian Stadler), K. 681
ヴォルフガング・アマデウス・モーツァルト作
Mozart’s Larghetto and Allegro in E♭ major (K. 681) is a short, unfinished two-keyboard work from about 1781, surviving in autograph only as a fragment later completed by Abbé Maximilian Stadler (1748–1833) [1]. It offers a rare glimpse of Mozart, aged 25, in the act of drafting a concertante, dialogue-driven keyboard piece whose precise original purpose remains unclear [3].
What Is Known
Mozart’s surviving manuscript transmits a Larghetto followed by the beginning of an Allegro in E♭ major, notated on four staves—strongly suggesting an intended scoring for two keyboards (commonly performed today as two pianos, and sometimes arranged for piano four-hands) [3]. The autograph is supplemented by completion work in the hand of Abbé Maximilian Stadler, one of the musicians involved in sorting Mozart’s papers after his death [1].
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The New Mozart Edition foreword reports that the manuscript was in Mozart’s apartment at the time of his death; Constanze Mozart and Georg Nikolaus von Nissen encountered it during the estate assessment, initially misunderstanding its scoring before Stadler identified it and undertook a completion (as he did for other fragments) [1]. The manuscript is described there as being kept in the Castle Music Archive in Kroměříž (Kremsier) [1]. The place of composition is not securely documented.
Musical Content
The fragment comprises an entire slow introduction—an expressive Larghetto (35 bars)—followed by a substantial stretch of an Allegro that reads like the exposition of a sonata-allegro movement (74 bars) [3]. Even within what survives, the writing is notably “conversational”: musical ideas are passed rapidly between the two parts, creating a poised, theatrical sense of exchange rather than a solo-with-accompaniment texture [3]. In this respect, the fragment fits naturally beside Mozart’s 1781 preoccupation with dramatic pacing and characterful dialogue, even when working in purely instrumental genres.
[1] New Mozart Edition (Neue Mozart-Ausgabe), IX/24/1a — Foreword and source information for *Larghetto and Allegro in E♭* (fragment; completion in Stadler’s hand; manuscript history and location).
[2] IMSLP work page — basic catalog data and edition/credits (Stadler completion; Croll editor; NMA publication details; key and year).
[3] Hyperion Records notes (Tomer Lev) — summary of the surviving fragment’s extent (35-bar Larghetto; 74-bar Allegro exposition), four-stave notation implying two keyboards, and general context (probable 1781).