Previously Unknown Mozart String Trio Composition Discovered in German Library
The piece believed to have been written by a teen Mozart, "Ganz kleine Nachtmusik," will be performed for the first time at the Leipzig Opera on Saturday (Sept. 21).
Portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart circa 1780 painted by Johann Nepomuk della Croce.
More than 230 years after his death, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is dropping new music. While the vaunted classical composer died in 1791 at age 35, according to Agence France-Presse a previously unknown piece of music experts believe was written by a teenage Mozart was recently discovered at a library in Germany.
The 12-minute piece referred to as “Ganz kleine Nachtmusik” dates to the mid- to late-1760s and is described as consisting of seven miniature movement for a string trio according to a statement from the Leipzig Municipal Libraries. Researchers reportedly discovered the piece at Leipzig’s music library when they were compiling the latest edition of the so-called “Köchel” catalogue, an exhaustive, chronological list of all of Mozart’s known compositions.
While the unearthed manuscript was not personally written by Mozart, researchers said it is believed to be a copy of the original made in 1780. The piece was performed for the first time by a string trio at the unveiling of the latest edition of the catalogue in Salzburg on Thursday (Sept. 19) and will get is German premiere at the Leipzig Opera on Saturday (Sept. 21).
“Since the inspiration for this apparently came from Mozart’s sister, it is tempting to imagine that she kept the work as a memento of her brother,” said Ulrich Leisinger of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg in a statement about the piece, which is unique because until now researchers thought of Mozart as mainly a composer of piano music, arias and symphonies.
The Köchel catalogue described the piece as “preserved in a single source, in which the attribution of the author suggests that the work was written before Mozart’s first trip to Italy” in December 1769 when the child prodigy composer was just 13-years-old.
