Download Two New Mozart Compositions Discovered

Press Release: August 2, 2009 (short version)
Two New Mozart Compositions Discovered
The Research Department of the International Mozarteum Foundation, Salzburg, has identified
a concerto movement and a prelude for keyboard by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart in “Nannerl’s
Music Book” which has been in possession of the Foundation since 1864.
Dr. Ulrich Leisinger, Director of the Research Department of the International Mozarteum Foundation,
has identified two pieces, which have been transmitted anonymously, as being almost certainly
unknown compositions by the young Wolfgang Amadé Mozart. The extensive concerto movement
and the prelude are found at the end of the so-called “Nannerl’s Music Book”, which father Leopold
had begun to compile in 1759 for his daughter Maria Anna (“Nannerl”) and which was also used for the
musical education of Wolfgang. In addition to pieces designed for practicing, the book also contains
the first compositions by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart.
Until now, the two piano pieces that survive in the hand of Leopold Mozart were classified as
anonymous compositions. The history of these works has been re-evaluated by Ulrich Leisinger. He
used handwriting analysis and analysis of other stylistic criteria, which support the claim that they were
actually composed by the young Mozart, who was not yet versed in musical notation, and transcribed
by his father as the boy played the works at the keyboard. Leopold Mozart entered Wolfgang’s name
on some of the boy’s own compositions, but not on all of them. Although the manuscript appears to be
a “composing score” and Leopold himself was a versatile composer, he can be ruled out as the author
of the pieces on the basis of stylistic scrutiny; there are obvious discrepancies between the technical
virtuosity and a certain lack of compositional experience.
The highly virtuosic Molto Allegro was most probably the first movement of a harpsichord concerto in
G major. Only the solo part of the harpsichord has been notated; the orchestral ritornelli are omitted.
The five-minute piece stems most likely from 1763/1764 and is an important link between the
miniatures of “Nannerl’s Music Book” and the larger forms of instrumental music (sonatas,
symphonies, and concertos), to which Mozart dedicated himself from the summer of 1763 onwards. In
the manuscript, a fragmentary prelude precedes the concerto movement. It is similar in its technical
demands to the concerto movement and thus most likely stems from Wolfgang Amadé Mozart.
Pianist Florian Birsak will present the two “new” Mozart pieces on Mozart’s fortepiano on August 2,
2009 at the Mozart residence in Salzburg; a recording featuring Birsak on harpsichord is available for
audio download under www.mozarteum.at. Pianist Robert Levin, a renowned expert in the area of
historical performance practice, has provided the missing orchestral accompaniment, which will be
heard then for the first time. The first performance of the works including the new orchestra version by
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Robert D. Levin will take place during the Mozart Week 2010 (January 22 – 31 ). It has always been
one task of the International Mozarteum Foundation to present the results of its scientific work also
within the concert programme. The Mozarteum Foundation also plans the release of the complete
score and an audio recording including the orchestra version.
A facsimile edition of the two newly-identified works is available for 12 euros beginning August 2, 2009
in the gift shop at Mozart’s birthplace and the Mozart residence (www.mozarthaus.biz). In the autumn
of 2009, the complete “Nannerl’s Music Book” will appear in a facsimile edition, along with a recording
by Birsak of the entire collection as part of the “Denkmäler der Musik in Salzburg” (“Monuments to
Music in Salzburg”) published by Strube Verlag, Munich. This facsimile edition contains not only all
pages found in the Salzburg manuscript, but also those leaves removed by Nannerl herself and given
as keepsakes to friends and admirers of her famous brother, which are now scattered all over the
world.
1
Picture- and Audio-Download: www.mozarteum.at
Further Informationen: Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Mirjam Nellmann, Director of Public Relations,
Schwarzstraße 26, 5020 Salzburg, phone: 0043-662-88940-25, mail: [email protected]
Press Release: August 2, 2009 (detailed version)
Two New Mozart Compositions Discovered
The Research Department of the International Mozarteum Foundation, Salzburg, has
identified a concerto movement and a prelude for keyboard by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart in
“Nannerl’s Music Book” which has been in possession of the Foundation since 1864.
Dr. Ulrich Leisinger, Director of the Research Department of the International Mozarteum
Foundation, has identified two pieces, which have been transmitted anonymously, as being
almost certainly unknown compositions by the young Wolfgang Amadé Mozart. The extensive
concerto movement and the prelude are found at the end of the so-called “Nannerl’s Music
Book”, which father Leopold had begun to compile in 1759 for his daughter Maria Anna
(“Nannerl”) and which was also used for the musical education of Wolfgang. In addition to pieces
designed for practicing, the book also contains the first compositions by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart.
Until now, the two piano pieces that survive in the hand of Leopold Mozart were classified as
anonymous compositions. The history of these works has been re-evaluated by Ulrich Leisinger.
He used handwriting analysis and analysis of other stylistic criteria, which support the claim that
they were actually composed by the young Mozart, who was not yet versed in musical notation,
and transcribed by his father as the boy played the works at the keyboard.
Leopold Mozart entered Wolfgang’s name on some of the boy’s own compositions, but not on all
of them.
According to Ulrich Leisinger, “The highly virtuosic Molto Allegro was most probably the first
movement of a Cembalo concerto in G Major. Only the solo part of the cembalo has been
notated, the orchestral ritornelli were not included. Though many Salzburg musical collections
from the 18th century still exist, none includes such a technically demanding piece.” The
manuscript exhibits Leopold Mozart’s hurried script, which is typical of a “working manuscript”.
Yet Leopold, himself a versatile composer, can be ruled out as the author of this piece on the
basis of stylistic scrutiny; there are obvious discrepancies between the technical virtuosity and a
certain lack of compositional experience.
An anecdote recorded in 1792 proves that Wolfgang began to compose concertos long before his
“first” Piano Concerto, K. 175, of 1773. The Salzburg court trumpeter and close friend of the
Mozart family, Johann Andreas Schachtner, recalled that young Mozart attempted to compose a
concerto even before he was skilled at musical notation, and that Leopold had glanced at the
piece, at first critical but then visibly moved to tears before turning to Schachtner and saying,
“‘Look here… how everything has been correctly set--it is only useless because it is too difficult
for anyone to play’; then Wolfgang responded, ‘that’s why it’s a concerto, ’cause you have to
practice a long time before you can play it.’” The correlation between this anecdote and the
present concerto movement has yet to be established.
The value of the discovery, however, is without question, as Harvard professor and worldrenowned pianist Robert D. Levin confirms: “From contemporary reports we merely knew that the
Mozart children possessed stupendous keyboard technique. In this concerto movement we have
for the first time concrete evidence of it. What the composer expects of the player in racing
passagework, crossed hands and wild leaps is more than a bit crazy. I consider it quite credible
that the movement was composed by the young Mozart, who wished to show in it everything he
could do.” Pencil entries in the manuscript document that the concerto movement was carefully
studied in the Mozart home. Whether Wolfgang or Leopold ever fashioned an orchestral setting
out of the movement is unknown. “The pencil entries imply a performance, which was only
possible if the accompaniment had been completed. Naturally it is possible that Wolfgang’s
2
Picture- and Audio-Download: www.mozarteum.at
Further Informationen: Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Mirjam Nellmann, Director of Public Relations,
Schwarzstraße 26, 5020 Salzburg, phone: 0043-662-88940-25, mail: [email protected]
declaration, ‘I am writing a keyboard concerto and the first movement will soon be completed,’
refers only to the solo part; but it is far more probable that the compositional process involved the
orchestral accompaniment from the outset. Unfortunately the movement is scarcely performable
as it has come down to us, because the orchestral tuttis are missing—not just the introduction
and postlude, but three intermediate ritornellos. Double bars in the solo part invoke the missing
orchestral sections. In addition, there are six short passages where the orchestra evidently
reacts to the solo instrument,” comments Prof. Levin, who himself has reconstructed numerous
fragmentary works by Mozart, most recently the C minor Mass, K 427, and a quintet movement
for clarinet and strings in A major, K 581a. “It is relatively easy to reconstruct the missing
orchestral ritornellos from the solo sections. To be sure, a good composer develops the solo
passages from the orchestral ritornellos, but one can invert this procedure by reducing the
virtuoso passages of the solo harpsichord to simpler versions. The listener then has the
impression that the solo instrument invents her/his ideas from what has come before. In this way
we can imagine rather clearly what the young and highly ambitious young composer intended.”
Levin’s reconstruction of the work, which extends the movement by 28 measures for a total of
103 measures, uses the customary accompaniment of two violins and bass that was common to
harpsichord concertos in Salzburg up to the 1770s.
The five-minute piece stems most likely from 1763/1764 and is an important link between the
miniatures of “Nannerl’s Music Book” and the larger forms of instrumental music (sonatas,
symphonies, and concertos), to which Mozart dedicated himself from the summer of 1763
onwards. In the manuscript, a fragmentary prelude precedes the concerto movement. It is similar
in its technical demands to the concerto movement and thus most likely stems from Wolfgang
Amadé Mozart.
The new attribution of the works occurred during the preparation of the facsimile edition of
“Nannerl’s Music Book” as part of the Digital Mozart Edition, a co-operative project of the Packard
Humanities Institute in Los Altos, California and the International Mozarteum Foundation in
Salzburg. The original manuscript came into the collections of the “Dom-Musik-Verein und
Mozarteum” in 1864; since 1880, this organization has been known as the “International
Mozarteum Foundation”. Neither piece is included in the Köchel catalog of Mozart’s works. They
were published in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (“New Mozart Edition”) (NMA) in 1982 within the
volume of “Notenbücher” (Music Books) but not recognized as compositions by Mozart. The
International Mozarteum Foundation is therefore now issuing a facsimile edition of these two
pieces.
Pianist Florian Birsak will present the two “new” Mozart pieces on Mozart’s fortepiano on August
2, 2009 at the Mozart residence in Salzburg. At this occasion, the orchestral version by Robert D.
Levin will be heard for the first time. A recording featuring Birsak on harpsichord is available for
audio download under www.mozarteum.at.
The first performance of the works including the new orchestra version by Robert D. Levin will
take place during the Mozart Week 2010 (January 22nd – 31st). It has always been one task of the
International Mozarteum Foundation to present the results of its scientific work also within the
concert programme. The Mozarteum Foundation also plans the release of the complete score
and an audio recording including the orchestra version.
A facsimile edition of the two newly-identified works is available for 12 euros beginning August 2,
2009 in the gift shop at Mozart’s birthplace and the Mozart residence (www.mozarthaus.biz). In
the autumn of 2009, the complete “Nannerl’s Music Book” will appear in a facsimile edition, along
with a recording by Birsak of the entire collection as part of the “Denkmäler der Musik in
Salzburg” (“Monuments to Music in Salzburg”) published by Strube Verlag, Munich. This facsimile
edition contains not only all pages found in the Salzburg manuscript, but also those leaves
removed by Nannerl herself and given as keepsakes to friends and admirers of her famous
brother, which are now scattered all over the world.
3
Picture- and Audio-Download: www.mozarteum.at
Further Informationen: Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Mirjam Nellmann, Director of Public Relations,
Schwarzstraße 26, 5020 Salzburg, phone: 0043-662-88940-25, mail: [email protected]