K. Anh.A 42 (K9): A “Mozart” Flute Concerto Now Attributed to Johann Baptist Wendling
di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
K. Anh.A 42 (K9) is a doubtful item once linked to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), but now treated as a concerto—probably for flute and orchestra—by the Mannheim virtuoso Johann Baptist Wendling (1723–1797). The Köchel Catalogue Online lists it under Wendling’s name and describes it as extant, with a Mannheim/Paris dating in 1777–1778, i.e., during Mozart’s crucial Mannheim stay at age 21 [1].
What Is Known
The Köchel Catalogue Online identifies K. Anh.A 42 explicitly as “Johann Baptist Wendling, Konzert,” vermutlich für Flöte und Orchester (probably for flute and orchestra), and reports that the work survives (Transmission: extant) [1]. This immediately conflicts with older or inconsistent database labels that circulate under Mozart’s name (and, in some secondary cataloging, even as “piano variations”): the best current summary is that the concerto is not Mozart’s composition, though Mozart’s proximity to Wendling in Mannheim in late 1777 makes some form of involvement—copying, “setting” parts, or practical help—plausible.
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Historically, Wendling was a leading flautist of the Mannheim court orchestra and an important contact for Mozart at this moment in his life (late 1777 into early 1778), when Mozart was seeking employment and absorbing Mannheim’s orchestral style [2]. In the Köchel system, the work remains filed as an appendix item, and the online catalogue also preserves its older cross-reference (“KV⁶ 284e”) alongside the newer label K9: K. Anh.A 42 [1].
Musical Content
Because the surviving source is not described in detail in the public-facing catalogue entry (no key, incipits, or movement plan are given there), the safest characterization is limited to genre and likely scoring: a concerto probably for flute and orchestra [1]. Even so, the attribution itself is musically telling. Wendling’s concertos are typically designed to display a Mannheim soloist’s strengths—clean articulation, brilliance in the upper register, and vocal, operatic phrasing in slower music—traits that also helped shape Mozart’s own writing for wind instruments during and after the Mannheim experience [2].
[1] Köchel Catalogue Online (Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum): entry for KV Anh. A 42 “Johann Baptist Wendling, Konzert” (status, transmission, dating, cross-references).
[2] Wikipedia: Johann Baptist Wendling — biographical context and Wendling’s role in Mannheim; useful for basic orientation to the figure involved.