Photo Credit: Andreas
The ‘gently-used’ composition was discovered at the library in Leipzig, hidden in the Carl Ferdinand Becker collection in the music library. Researchers believe it was written in the 1760s, when Mozart was an early teen. They describe the manuscript as being in “Dark brown ink on medium-white handmade paper” with individually bound parts.
The 12-minute composition was performed on September 19 in Salzburg—more than 260 years after it was written. The found manuscript is believed to be a copy of the original, made sometime in the 1780s.
The piece of music itself is a string trio written before Mozart’s first trip to Italy is is composed of “Seven miniature movements for a string trio lasting about 12 minutes.” Germany musicologist Ulrich Leisinger, speaking for the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, stated that the composition is unique compared to other pieces produced by Mozart at the time. Mozart primarily wrote arias, symphonies, and piano music during this period.
The piece premiered in Germany on September 21 by Vincent Geer (violin), David Geer (violin), and Elisabeth Zimmermann (violoncello) at the Leipzig Opera (video above). The first published edition of this new piece, based on a facsimile of the manuscript parts, was released on online sheet music sites like Score Exchange. This latest discovery is one of a dozen new Mozart pieces discovered in modern times. In 2008, an unknown Mozart score was discovered in French library.
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Listen as Musicians in Leipzig Perform Newly Discovered Mozart Piece – Digital Music News
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