In an article Sunday (8/2) on Yahoo! News , Associated Press reporter Veronika Oleksy writes, “Technically demanding and at times furiously paced, two newly identified Mozart works unveiled Sunday are helping scholars complete their assessment of the maestro’s very early achievements. The childhood creations—an extensive concerto movement and a fragmentary prelude—provide yet more proof the Salzburg native was a true prodigy. And maybe a bit of a showoff. ‘We have here the first orchestral movement by the young Mozart—even though the orchestral parts are missing—and therefore it’s an extremely important missing link in our understanding of Mozart’s development as a young composer,’ said Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation after a presentation of the pieces in Mozart’s native Salzburg. … Leisinger said Mozart likely wrote the two newly attributed pieces when he was 7 or 8 years old, with his father, Leopold, transcribing the notes as his son played them at the keyboard. … At Sunday’s presentation at the Mozart residence, Austrian musician Florian Birsak, an expert on early keyboard music, played the two pieces on the maestro’s own fortepiano for a throng of reporters, photographers and camera crews.”
Posted August 3, 2009
