John Wion comments on
Mozart tempos
from internet discussion group (February 1997)
Several recent events have set me thinking about the speeds at which flutists perform the different Mozart solos. From thirty plus years of playing and coaching these pieces and simultaneously playing Mozart's operas, I have developed a clear feeling about these tempos. But that doesn't always seem to carry much weight with a student who has settled on something quite different. And then there will be the recording by some respected flutist that I also feel has inappropriate tempos to argue against. For support I went looking again at Jean-Pierre Marty's "The Tempo Indications of Mozart" (Yale UP, 1988). In this fascinating book the conductor proposes that Mozart had a very clear idea of just what speed he wished his music to be played at, and indicated that speed with descriptions that were very meaningful to the performers of his time. I wont go into M. Marty's argument here, but he classifies every piece of Mozart's music for which a tempo was indicated into groups, and proposes an approximate metronome marking for each group.
I thought the list might find it interesting to see his suggestions as they apply to the flute solos. For e-mail purposes I use H for half note (minim), Q for quarter note (crotchet), and E for eighth note (quaver). I find a lot of them about one notch too fast for my taste, but that could be a variation of metronomes.
G Major Concerto
Allegro maestoso Q=108
Adagio ma non troppo E=72
Tempo di Minuetto Q=126
D Major Concerto
Allegro aperto Q=126
Adagio ma non troppo Q=46
Allegro Q=126
Andante
E=84
C Major Concerto
Allegro Q=126
Andantino Q=54
Allegro H=72
C Major Quartet
Allegro Q=126
Andantino Q=44
Adagio E=56
Allegro Q=168
D Major Quartet
Allegro Q=126
Adagio E=72
Rondeau (no tempo marking, but does that mean that the tempo stays the same(ie H=72)? (my comment, not M. Marty's.)
G Major Quartet
Andante Q=72
Tempo di Minuetto E=116
A Major Quartet
Q=120
Menuetto Q=126
Allegretto grazioso etc. Q=116