Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sonata D Major for 2 Flutes, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The great popularity of the flute with amateurs even after the baroque period is due to the large numbers of arrangements of Mozart's compositions for and with the flute. One of these is the p resent Sonata. It is not listed in the 6th edition of the Kochel index, but is in RISM, under M. 6900. We owe this new edition to Schott, who placed the first edition from their archives at my disposal. The arranger ist Gottlieb Heinrich Kohler, flautist, later for health reasons timpanist in Leipzig, musician at the Gewandhaus, and teacher, who apparently wrote at least 168 operas. Most ofhis works can be safely regarded as ephemeral - Schilling described him as a "Modekomponist" (a composer who wrote according to fashion) - but that cannot be said of the present sonata. The model for this arrangement is the piano sonata in С maj or, K. 300h, transposed up a tone. Kohler added two further movements (also transposed into D major): the andante from the F major sonata for piano and violin (K. 374d) and a minuet by Fischer with variations for piano by Mozart (K. 189a), originally also in С; only variations 1,2,3,5,8 and 12 were used.