Score found in Vienna may be Mozart's work
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Your support makes all the difference.The Musikverein concert house in Vienna said that it was investigating a recently discovered 18th-century music score which archivists believe could be an unknown symphony which was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was a child.
The Musikverein concert house in Vienna said that it was investigating a recently discovered 18th-century music score which archivists believe could be an unknown symphony which was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was a child.
The score was found by the Musikverein last autumn among a collection of other 18th-century scripts it bought in Germany. It is dated 1770, when Mozart would have been 13, and bears the title in Italian "Symphony by Wolfgang Mozart", in the writing of a scribe.
Otto Biba, the Musikverein's chief archivist, said: "Experts in Europe and America are studying the score to find out if it's a genuine Mozart." He said he expected them to reach a conclusion by next year. "At present, the odds are 50-50," he said.
Mr Biba said a similar score bearing the name of a little-known Austrian composer had been discovered in the Croatian capital Zagreb and the experts were trying to establish which one was genuine. "The paper on our score came from Cologne in Germany, which takes us a little nearer to Mozart," he added.
He said the Musikverein planned a concert next month at which the unknown "Mozart" symphony would be played. "We shall be asking the audience to give their verdict," Mr Biba said. Austria is to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth next year.
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