Researchers deep in the Mozart archives at the Leipzig Municipal Libraries found a previously-unknown piece of music, titled Serenade, that the composer likely wrote when he was a young teenager. Below, have a listen to one its first performances in 250 years.
"It looks as if—thanks to a series of favorable circumstances—a complete string trio has survived in Leipzig," says Ulrich Leisinger, head of the International Mozarteum Foundation. "The source was evidently Mozart's sister, and so it is tempting to think that she preserved the work as a memento of her brother. Perhaps he wrote the trio specially for her."
From Smithsonian:
Serenade in C consists of seven miniature movements for a string trio (two violins and a bass)[…] The attribution to "Wo[l]fgang Mozart" indicates that the piece is from the composer's youth, as he started regularly adding "Amadeo" to his name around 1769.
Researchers say the music fits stylistically with other works from the 1760s, when Mozart was between the ages of 10 and 13.
Previously:
• Why Mozart's The Magic Flute is on the Voyager Golden Record
• Watch a theremin virtuoso play an exquisite rendition of a Mozart Magic Flute aria
• Young Mozart reviewed in 1769
