Hofmann, Leopold: Flute Concerto in G major (Badley G3) (AE140)

Hofmann, Leopold (1738-1793)

A near contemporary and rival of Haydn, Leopold Hofmann was held in the highest regard in his native Vienna where he served as Kapellmeister at St Stephen’s Cathedral, a position to which Mozart might have succeeded had he lived. Hofmann was a prolific composer of instrumental music and his solo concertos, of which there are nearly sixty for various instruments, are among the finest written in Vienna during the mid-18th century. A significant number of Hofmann’s works survive in a single source including many of the flute concertos. But the Flute Concerto G3 presents a unique problem since only the autograph score is extant and there is no evidence from contemporary thematic catalogues that any other copies ever existed. What is even more remarkable, however, is that in the archive in which the autograph is preserved - the Fürst Thurn und Taxis Hofbibliothek in Regensburg - there are no performing parts. While it is possible that these did exist at some time and have been lost, it must remain a possibility, however remote, that this fine work was never performed. Like all of Hofmann’s flute concertos the present work is distinguished by its wonderfully idiomatic writing for the solo instrument and its sensitive handling of musical textures.