Oboe Concerto in C major

At a glance

• What it isthe third and last movement of the Oboe Concerto in C major, a Rondo: Allegro, a fast piece in which the theme returns several times.
• Who, when, whythought to have been written in 1777 by the twenty-one-year-old Mozart for Ferlendis, oboist in the Salzburg court orchestra.
• What to listen forthe bright theme returning each time, and the varied stories the oboe tells in between.

Listen for

• The themethe oboe brings out a lively theme. Each time it returns, it feels like coming home.
• Stories in betweenbetween appearances of the theme, the oboe moves to another key and offers new melodies.
• Cadenza and closethe orchestra stops and the oboe briefly displays its skill alone, then the theme returns one last time and ends brightly.

When it was written

This concerto was forgotten for a time. The following year Mozart transposed it to D major and reworked it as a flute concerto, and for a long while only that flute version was known. Around 1920 the oboe parts were found in Salzburg, and the original form became known again.

Mozart did not throw away a good melody. The theme of this rondo reappears in the aria 'What bliss, what joy' from his opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, premiered in Vienna in 1782.