In honour of the 265th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, a newly discovered composition he wrote for piano will be played at 6 pm today, 27th January at the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg. Allegro for piano sonata in D, KV626b/16, which was discovered in 2018, will be performed by Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho at the opening of the Mozartwoche festival.

The rediscovered manuscript, which includes Mozart’s own notes, is thought to have been written in 1773. The manuscript passed from the estate of the composer’s youngest son into the collection of Austrian civil servant and amateur musician Aloys Fuchs, and then for several decades all trace of it was lost. Owned in the late 1880s by an antiquarian book and art dealer, it was brought to auction in 1899. At around that time the work first appeared on the list of Mozart’s works in the catalogue of Ludwig von Köchel, who made a chronological list of the composer’s works, although the manuscript continued to travel around various auction houses.

Ninety years later, in 2018, the manuscript finally drew the attention of music experts, when the family of a Franco-Dutch engineer, who had bought the work in Paris in the late 1920’s, offered it for sale to the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation.

The Foundation soon confirmed that the work was without doubt composed by Mozart. His sheet music notation will be published on the premiere performance.

The event will be streamed live on the web platform Deutsche Gramophon DG Stage, as part of a lecture and piano recital that will include other works by the great composer.

Source: classicalfm.com, dg-premium.com