The Research Department of the International Mozarteum Foundation, Salzburg, has identified a concerto movement and a prelude for keyboard by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart in a music book that has been in possession of the Foundation since 1864.
Dr. Ulrich Leisinger, Director of the Research Department of 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 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.
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