From Obscurity to Authenticity at the Mozarteum

Mozart at 7 years old in a portrait by Daines Barrington, London 1781. (International Mozarteum Foundation)

Two piano pieces recently discovered and attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have not only caused quite a stir in the world of music, but reveal a great deal about the prodigy. Experts believe they were composed when he was about 8 years old.

Dr. Ulrich Leisinger, Director of the Research Department of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, discovered the pieces.

“We believe the two pieces were composed to be performed at a concert during the grand Mozart family tour through Western Europe between 1763 and 1766. But we are confident they were created before the family arrived in London in 1764,” Dr. Leisinger told The Epoch Times.

The two pieces—a fragmentary prelude in G and a concerto movement in G—are viewed as a connection between the composer’s early period and his mature works which included sonatas, symphonies, and concertos. They also demonstrate his skills as a musician.

“The concerto movement is possibly Mozart’s first ‘great’ piece. It is almost five minutes long and forms an important link between Mozart’s very first compositions—miniature movements in the Nannerl music book—and the greater forms of instrumental music such as symphony, sonata, or concerto,” said Dr. Leisinger.

Watch NTDTV report on “Two New Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.”

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What Put the Two Pieces’ Anonymity under Suspicion?

The five-minute-long concerto movement and the prelude were found at the end of “Nannerl’s Music Book,” which father Leopold Mozart had begun to compile in 1759 for his daughter Maria Anna (also known as “Nannerl”). It was also used for the musical education of little Wolfgang. In addition to being an exercise manual, the book also contained Wolfgang’s first compositions.

“The two pieces have been in the possession of the Mozarteum Foundation since 1864. But they were published as anonymous works for the first time in 1982 as part of the “Neue Mozart Ausgabe” (“New Mozart Edition”).

“As we were preparing a complete facsimile of ‘Nannerl’s Music Book,’ we had to check carefully every single piece and identify who its copyist and who the composer was.”

Dr. Leisinger noticed something interesting about the concerto movement—namely, it was a highly demanding technical piece, unlike any in the Salzburg classical collection from the 18th century.

As little Wolfgang was not yet versed in musical notation, he usually played at the keyboard while his father Leopold transcribed the music. Evidence for this—Leopold wrote Wolfgang’s name on some of the pieces to show he was the composer. But not on all of them.

“Although Leopold himself was a versatile composer, he can be ruled out as author of this piece on the basis of stylistic [issues] and handwriting analysis; there are obvious discrepancies between the technical virtuosity and a certain lack of compositional experience.”

An anecdote recorded in 1792 indirectly supports the claim that the two pieces might really belong to little Wolfgang. A close friend of Mozart’s family, the court trumpeter Johann Andreas Schachtner, recalled how Mozart had composed a concerto even before obtaining skills in musical notation. “Young Wolfgang showed his father a newly composed concerto, to which Leopold exclaimed: ‘Look here… everything has been correctly set… only it is useless because it is too difficult for anyone to play,’ to which young Wolfgang replied: ‘That is why it is a concerto—because you have to practice a long time before you can play it.’”

According to the Mozarteum Foundation, the composer of the concerto is without question. Harvard professor and world-renowned pianist Robert D. Levin confirms it: “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 [such as] racing passage work, 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.”

Dr. Leisinger and the Mozarteum Foundation Promote Mozart’s Music

Since its foundation in 1880, the Mozarteum Foundation has had one mission: to promote Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his works. The organization of concerts, arranging of Mozart museums, and conducting academic research on Mozart are three core areas in which the Foundation strives to create a link between preserving and fostering tradition and adapting to new and contemporary views. Among its methods is to find and explore new approaches of analysis of its patron.

The Mozarteum Foundation plays an important role. It is responsible for the “New Mozart Edition,” which includes the complete works of Mozart and has been worked on since 1954.

Dr. Ulrich Leisinger came to Salzburg in 2005. He is a musicologist by profession and graduated from the universities of Freiburg and Heidelberg. Between 1991 and 1993 he served a post-doctorate at Harvard University. Later he served as a visiting professor at Cornell University for 2004-2005.

His love for Mozart, though, started when he was 14 years old.

“I started reading Mozart biographies and memorizing the catalogue of his works, so we have a long-term relationship.”

In addition to the discovery Dr. Leisinger made himself, he has witnessed two other discoveries of Mozart’s compositions.

“The first one was the finding of an unknown Allegro in a music book acquired in 2006 by the Archdiocese of Salzburg. Later, the so-called ‘Nantes sketch-leaf’ was revealed in France in the fall of 2008.”

Dr. Leisinger is looking forward to new discoveries: “The ‘Nannerl’ book contains a ’suspicious’ polonaise in F major which is too short [for one] to come to conclusive results.”

As for the two pieces Dr. Leisinger recently discovered, they will have their first official performance, including a new orchestral version by Robert D. Levin, during Mozart Week 2010 (January 22–31) in Salzburg.