Joseph Ignaz Leitgeb

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Joseph Ignaz Leitgeb (or Leutgeb) (October 8, 1732 - February 27, 1811) was a virtuoso Salzburg-born horn player and close friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

It is generally believed that the Mozart Horn Concertos were composed specifically for Leitgeb in order to showcase his musical ability. Mozart put light-hearted comments in the margins, egging his friend on. All were written for natural horn.

Leitgeb was a wealthy cheese merchant and was able to afford to pay Mozart for compositions, as well as lending money to the sometimes impecunious composer.

Recent scholarship dates the horn concerti in the order 2, 3, 4, 1, with no. 1 (K. 412) being the last composed. This piece is less demanding than the others, and this is believed to reflect the decline of Leitgeb's prowess either with age or with his music being increasingly relegated to a sideline.

It has now been suggested that Leugeb appeared several times as soloist in 1749 in Vienna, and possibly also at Eszterhaz as he appears on the pay list briefly. If the soloist mentioned in the 1749 concerts was the same Leitgeb, then aged 17, it would make him almost unique as a solo performer both before and afer the use of hand-horn technique became common. This has yet to be fully and academically investigated or proved. It also raises the question of how, where and by whom he was educated as a 17 year old would not have been likely to have been able to afford an instrument of his own. (The cheese shop business was inherited from his wife's family). It is also suggested that Haydn's wife was present at the christening of one of Leutgeb's children. The work done by John Humphries and others on these subjects provides the basis of most of these assertions, supported by scholarly articles on recently retrieved concert lists from Vienna. (full sources to follow)