Although Mozart was, in many respects, a fully mature composer by his early 20's, he was in 1777 still working at the same Salzburg court that employed his father Leopold. Anxious to establish an independence from his father, he spent most of 1777 and 1778 in Mannheim and Paris, looking for work. The trip was hardly the success Mozart might have hoped for, and not only because of his failure to secure a better job. He fell in love with the young Aloyse Weber (sister of his future wife Constanze), but his father insisted, in their written correspondence, that he terminate the relationship. Furthermore, Mozart's mother, who was traveling with him, became ill, did not respond to the medical treatments available at the time, and died.
Remarkably, the inspiration of the trip was more of an influence on Mozart's work than were the problems in his personal life, and his output during this time is impressive. In a period of little more than a year, he produced three solo piano sonatas, six sonatas for piano and violin, the "Paris" Symphony (#31, K. 297/300a), a ballet, the two flute concertos, and the concerto for flute and harp. Mozart wrote the two flute concertos on a commission from a patron of whom he was not particularly fond; the composer never satisfied his complete obligation to the commission (more than two works were requested), nor did he successfully collect his full fee. In his correspondence with his father, Mozart suggested dissatisfaction with the artistic talents of his patron and skepticism of the flute as an effective concerto instrument. Fittingly, then, the flute pieces are concerned more with overall musical effect than with serving as a virtuoso vehicle for the soloist. The orchestral part in the Concerto #1, in particular, is often quite sophisticated. Although these features may not have delighted aspiring flute soloists of the time, the high quality of the piece as a whole is responsible for its lasting position in the repertoire. As the emphasis for the soloist is not exclusively on technical challenges, so are the opportunities to display genuine musicianship all the greater.
The first movement is in an exuberant, slightly martial character. As was the formal tradition of the time, the orchestra presents most of the important thematic material before the solo flute gets its turn. The wait is not too long, however, and the flute quickly makes up for lost time by decorating the melodies with quicker notes and offering some new ideas. In the second movement, Mozart replaced the pair of oboes in the orchestra with a pair of flutes – an unusual move, since a multi-movement piece of the time would typically have the same instrumentation in every movement, and also since the orchestral flutes cannot contrast with the soloist as easily as the oboes could have. Yet the muted strings give a veiled quality to the sound of the orchestra throughout the movement, and the flutes are indeed more appropriate to this effect than the oboes would be. The last movement is in the style of a minuet, a dance form that would not ordinarily conclude a piece. The breadth of the movement and the wealth of melodic ideas, however, provide for a perfectly satisfactory finale.