Last September I sent an announcement telling you about the
public presentation of a newly discovered autograph fragment of Mozart’s
famous Sonata in A major (K. 331, with the ‘Alla Turca’ finale). Now I am
happy to add that the National Széchényi Library has just launched a
website to make this precious manuscript freely accessible to all…
This announcement has reached us from Balázs Mikusi (Head of Music,
National Széchényi Library, Budapest):
Last September I sent an announcement telling you about the public presentation of a newly discovered autograph fragment of Mozart’s famous Sonata in A major (K. 331, with the ‘Alla Turca’ finale). Now I am happy to add that the National Széchényi Library has just launched a website to make this precious manuscript freely accessible to all:
http://mozart.oszk.hu/index_
The website describes the discovery as follows:
“In the spring of 2014, an unknown Mozart manuscript was found in National Széchényi Library, Budapest, by Dr. Balázs Mikusi, head of the Music Collection. Since the four-page fragment includes close to half of one of Mozart’s best-known pieces, the Sonata in A major (K. 331, with the ‘Alla Turca’ finale) in the composer’s own handwriting, the discovery attracted extraordinary attention. At the manuscript’s public presentation, held on September 26, 2014 in the packed Ceremonial Hall of the Library, Zoltán Kocsis performed the sonata on a copy of a fortepiano from Mozart’s time, rectifying some errors in earlier editions of the work, but the discovery was in the headlines all over the world several weeks before. Since we received a great number of both private and institutional queries, National Széchényi Library has decided to make a digital copy of this precious manuscript freely available to all, so that music lovers could study Mozart’s handwriting, and practicing musicians and musicologists may compare earlier editions of the A-major Sonata with the original notation of the composer.”
Image courtesy of National Széchényi Library.