This is the sequel to Richard Maunder's 'The scoring of Baroque concertos' (Boydell, 2004), now covering the period 1750-80, a time when the concerto was evolving from the baroque version,
typically played one-to-a part, towards the later, more 'orchestral' style - though even in 1780 an ensemble with more than pairs of string players would have been unusual. The book is
organized on geographical lines, and there is a detailed discussion of the music itself and of the original parts as evidence of the performance practice of the period. Far more concertos are
being written than in the Baroque period, and they are becoming longer and more richly scored. 1780 marks something of a watershed: it is within a year or two of the deaths of such composers as
Arne, J.C. Bach, Holzbauer, Myslivecek, G.B. Sammartini and Wagenseil, and also roughly coincides with the demise of the Mannheim court orchestra and its re-establishment in Munich, Mozart's
move from Salzburg to Vienna, and the start of what might be called the 'fortepiano era' in the city.
