Johann Anton André (b Offenbach, 6 Oct 1775; d Offenbach, 6 April 1842) is credited with being the first genuine Mozart scholar, as well as being quite a reasonable composer. The Bavarian library has just released three of his four-hand works.
Sonate facile pour piano forté à quatre mains ; oeuv. 56 -
http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db ... 262/images
Douze pièces progressives pour piano-forté à quatre mains ; oeuv. 44 -
http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db ... 264/images
Sonate à quatre mains pour le piano-forte op. 12 -
http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db ... 265/images
Grove, in part, has this to say about him:
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It was however Mozart’s estate that gave André his life’s task. He viewed this purely in its editorial aspect, producing from 1800 a veritable plenitude of, for the most part, outstandingly reliable ‘editions following the composer’s original manuscript’; but above all he viewed his task as one of sorting and ordering the manuscripts. André’s original plan, as arranged with Constanze and her husband Nissen as early as 1799–1800, called for a chronological catalogue of works and manuscripts to 1784, to be completed by appending Mozart’s own autograph catalogue of 1784–91; but insurmountable difficulties prevented its realization. Over half a dozen manuscript sketches for a catalogue, in widely varying stages (of which only the 1833 catalogue is generally known), attest to André’s continuing concern with the project, which occupied him intensively into the late 1830s. The results of André’s groundwork were later gratefully excerpted and adopted by Otto Jahn and Ludwig von Köchel. Indeed André, if anyone, deserves to be called ‘the father of Mozart research’. He entered the dispute over the authenticity of Mozart’s Requiem, initiated by Gottfried Weber in 1825, with two editions of the work (1827 and 1829) accompanied by detailed commentary; even those who feel uneasy with the particulars of André’s argument agree that at least the preface to the earlier edition is a brilliant showpiece of scholarly research. His edition in two colours of the score to Die Zauberflöte (1829), made ‘in precise agreement with the composer’s manuscript, as sketched, orchestrated and completed by him’, established entirely new criteria for documentary editions of music. This and other accomplishments quickly placed André far ahead of his time and even today have an unexpected immediacy.
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Regards
Fred
