A composition notebook by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, an autograph manuscript including seven pieces for harp and flute, was found by a curator of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) in Paris and will be performed for the first time on Sunday.
This is a “major discovery recognized by specialists”, according to Gilles Pécout, director of the BnF. It provides information “on the young professor Mozart, in dialogue with his student” and also documents the musician’s “last stay in Paris” in 1778. This notebook contains a dozen “composition lessons” from the Austrian composer (1756-1791).
He gave them “daily” in Paris from May to July 1778, “to Marie-Louise-Philippine de Bonnières de Guînes, daughter of the Duke of Guînes, excellent harpist,” explained François-Pierre Goy, curator in the music department of the BnF, to whom the merit of the discovery goes.
These forty-four pages also include “seven pieces for flute and harp”, the last of which is unfinished, he detailed while presenting the precious, well-preserved document. Co-composed, these pieces “always start from an idea proposed by Mozart”, according to the BnF. In the end “the hands of the master and the student” are involved “in varying proportions”.
A rare discovery
Discovered on February 2 among a package of anonymous manuscripts kept at the BnF, this notebook was appraised and its attribution validated at the end of April by the Bibliotheca Mozartiana of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the musician’s hometown.
Sunday, the day of the Music Festival, the seven new pieces will be played for the first time, interpreted by two musicians from the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Mathilde Calderini (flute) and Nicolas Tulliez (harpist), in front of an audience of guests at the BnF.
The pieces, lasting around 20 minutes in total, were recorded this week and will be broadcast on France Musique on Monday at 3:00 p.m. The original manuscript will be revealed during the concert on Sunday.
