It’s always exciting when a previously undiscovered work emerges, especially when composed by a world-famous master composer.  

Last Friday the BBC reported on a newly uncovered composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which had been ‘found in a notebook in an attic’ by music historian Hildegard Herrmann-Schneider, from the institute for Tyrolean music research at Innsbruck University. The attic apparently belonged to a band leader who lived ‘in the Lech Valley of the Austrian Tyrol’, and the notebook, dated 1780, had belonged to an Austrian born in 1765 named Johannes Reiserer. Reiserer sang in the Salzburg Cathedral’s Choir, which had famous musicians on the staff – including Mozart’s father Leopold.

The work, ‘Allegro Molto’ in C Major, is thought to have been written when the composer was about 11 years old. The pianist who had the honour of premiering it was Florian Birsak, a specialist in historical performance practice, and the first performance took place on March 23rd 2012 at Mozart’s childhood home in Salzburg on the composer’s original piano. The Mozartian hallmarks are apparent from the very first phrase!