Newly discovered Mozart pieces are premiered in Austria
Last updated 04/08/2009 13:33:13
Newly discovered Mozart pieces are premiered in Austria
It's news which will truly be sweet music to millions of classical music fans. Two previously undiscovered pieces by Mozart have been unearthed and given their premiere hundreds of years after his death.
The Mozart Residence Museum in Salzburg was full with eager admirers of the celebrated composer, to hear for the first time the pieces played on his own piano, in the setting of his own house.
It's rare to discover fresh work by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - but the two short pieces are being hailed by those in the know as the 'missing link' in the young composer's development.
Summing up the excitement of the discovery, Dr Ulrich Leisinger, from the International Mozarteum Foundation, said: "This was a young composer running riot to show what he was capable of."
And so it was that they gathered to hear the Concerto in G molto allegro - believed to be the first movement of a harpsichord concerto written around 1763, when the composer was, incredibly, just eight years or so old.
The second piece, the Prelude in G major, is described by experts as technically demanding, but slightly more 'refined'.
Austrian musician Florian Birsak had the great honour of playing both pieces on Mozart's fortepiano - followed by a short orchestral version of the concerto.
And the good news for Mozart fans is that the pieces won't remain hidden anymore. There will be another performance of them during Mozart Week 2010 in Salzburg.
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