A Major Mozart Discovery

Four pages from Mozart’s original manuscript for the Piano Sonata in A major, K 331 (whose last movement is the well-known “Turkish March”) has been found in Budapest. Hungarian music expert Balazs Mikusi was looking through hundreds of pages of handwritten copies of sheet music from Mozart’s time, when he suddenly recognized Mozart’s unique handwriting.

The major discovery starts in minor

In modern times, only the last page of the original manuscript of the work has been known. But now, we also have access to a large section consisting of variation 3 (in A minor) from the first movement until bar 10 in the second movement’s Trio section.

There are many interesting new details to consider in terms of slurs, dynamics and even some occasional notes that differs from the first published edition.

– It won’t change our view on Mozart, and it doesn’t change the character of the music, but we get a lot better sense of what Mozart wanted to achieve, said Mikusi.

Piano Sonata in A major, K 331 – piano sheet music