Austrian and German scientists Paul Duncan and Carsten Wollin have identified the author of the composition, which was previously attributed to an unknown musician from the circle of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). They claim that the author of the composition is Mozart himself, the press service of the Styrian State Archives reports.
We are talking about a work called “Milan Variations”, it is mentioned in the thematic index of Mozart’s works, but critics consider it “not Mozartian”, its authorship is attributed to a composer from the genius’s entourage.
It is known that the reason for its creation was the wedding in Milan in 1771 of Archduke Ferdinand Karl and Maria Beatrice d’Este. In honour of the same event, 15-year-old Mozart wrote the opera Ascanius in Alba.
Duncan was able to prove that the manuscript containing the Milanese Variations was prepared by the Viennese scribe Johannes Traeg and was completed, presumably, during Mozart’s lifetime.
“The German scholar’s discoveries about authorship led to none other than the greatest musical prodigy of the 18th century: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Little known and presumably never played in the last two centuries, the work dates back at least to a seven-year period during which Mozart is not known to have composed any piano pieces during this time.” – says the message.
The scores of the Milanese Variations originally ended up in the private archives of the collector Heinrich Eduard Joseph von Lannoy, who died in 1853. After this, the manuscript passed through several owners until it ended up in the Territorial Archives.
