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New Mozart pieces performed in Austria
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 3 August 2009
Two newly discovered pieces of music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were performed for the first time on Saturday. As previously reported, the works were identified as being by the composer by the International Mozarteum Foundation in Austria last month.
Prior to their performance in Mozart’s home (now a museum devoted to him) and played on his own piano, Dr Ulrich Leisinger of the organisation said that the two short pieces, written when Mozart was around eight years old, provided a “missing link” in the composer’s development.
Harvard professor, Robert Levin, told the BBC: “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”.
The two pieces were discovered in ‘Nannerl’s Music Book’, a collection of music compiled by Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus’ father. Although written in Leopold’s handwriting, Leisinger said that he believes they were transcriptions of music played by his son. He said: “This was a young composer running riot to show what he was capable of. The piece does contain real technical mistakes and clumsy moments that an old hand like Leopold Mozart would never have made”.
