Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Earliest Compositions, K. 1a–1d, 1761. Manuscript in the hand of Leopold Mozart. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, Mary Flagler Cary Music Collection.
In Wednesday’s (3/25) New York Times, Joshua Barone writes, “Salzburg … has never lost its affection for Wolfgang [Amadeus Mozart]. His likeness is inescapable … tourists visit the house where he was born and the more spacious home the family moved into as it became famous. Those sites are overseen by the Mozarteum Foundation of Salzburg, which maintains a vast collection of memorabilia and instruments. A number of its holdings, like the ink-stained portable clavichord on which Mozart wrote ‘The Magic Flute,’ are on view in ‘Treasures From the Mozarteum Foundation of Salzburg,’ at the Morgan Library and Museum through May 31. The exhibition and its accompanying catalog cover the composer’s entire life and legacy, but much of it is devoted to his foundational years in Salzburg, with objects that collectively illustrate how a boy of seemingly miraculous talent became the Mozart we know today.” The article includes photos and descriptions of artifacts in the exhibit, as well as sound clips of music written by Wolfgang and his sister, Maria Anna, known as Nannerl. The exhibition combines the Morgan Library’s significant holdings in Mozart manuscripts and first editions with remarkable objects, on view in the United States for the first time, from the Mozarteum Foundation of Salzburg.”
