Description
Cadenzas
for Concertos for Flute and Orchestra in G major KV 313 and D major KV 314
by Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Bernd Alois Zimmermann wrote three cadenzas for Mozart's Flute Concertos KV 313 and 314 for the flautist Siegfried Burkhardt whom he had met at the Darmstadt Summer Courses in 1954. Zimmermann initially sketched out the cadenzas for the first movements of each concerto on a sheet of paper before informing the recipient at the bottom of the page: More comming soon! The cadenza for the third movement of KV 314 followed on a second page with the comment: Above my “delivery”! Free of charge. With best flute wishes. These two pages are now housed in the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Archive of the Akademie der Kunste in Berlin (Signature 845).
Siegfried Burkhardt recalled in June 2002: It was I who encouraged the composition of the cadenzas in Darmstadt in 1954, as few decent cadenzas existed for these concertos. He must have sent them to me during the same year after the summer courses which would have been the end of 1954. As far as I can remember, he wrote that he had composed them in the train. / I never performed them as I found them too short and hoped for their continuation or expansion.
Pocket scores of both concertos containing dedications by Burkhardt dating from July 1956 have been retained in Zimmermann's estate. As one of the dedications reads: Mr. Bernds Alois Zimmermann / as a memory of the leasant / days in Darmstadt in 1954 and 1956 / and in gratitude for the cadenzas, it appears reasonable to date these cadenzas to the summer of 1956- contrary to Burkhardt's recoolections.
Heribert Henrich
Translation: Lindsay Chalmers-Gerbracht