Bob Kasenchak wrote a little while back.

>Here's an interesting one came across my desk yesterday:
>
>Lyric Records 103
>Lera Auerbach plays Mozart complete keyboard works, ages 5-9
>
>Yep.  5 to 9 years old.  Ol' Father Leopold apparently carefully
>transcribed and preserved all of Wolfie's early exercises, and they've
>made their way down through the years.  There are 49 short pieces in all,
>ranging from 13 seconds to 3 minutes in length.  Most are from the "London
>Notebook" written during his year-long study in London with Johann
>Christian Bach.  ...

Bob probably got this info from the booklet.  Just for the sake of
accuracy, the index to the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe lists the "London
Sketchbook" as: K. 15a-15ss, 43 pieces on two staves.  This description
matches that given by Stanley Sadie in his works list for the New Grove.

>All are suprisingly well-constructed and lovely, and show much care and
>sensitivity to music.  A few show early hints, seemingly even sketches,
>of later works.  Few artists, I bet, show this much early genius.

Agreed.  I'm probably only one of about a dozen people on the planet
(aside from those who went for the whole set) who bought the 45th and
last volume in Philips Complete Mozart Edition.  We've already heard
some of the details of Mozart's London Sketchbook, but Vol.  45, titled
"Rarities & Surprises", includes 28 of these short pieces in an interesting
treatment by Erik Smith, the noted Mozart scholar.  In the late summer of
1764, Leopold Mozart was touring for his fortune in England with his two
prodigy children when he took ill and retired to Chelsea for seven weeks to
recover.  After this recovery was complete, they returned to London to give
some concerts.  During this time, Wolfgang composed his first symphony and
wrote a set of sonatas for the Queen.  They stayed until August 1765, then
departed, never to return to England again.  I'll just excerpt the rest
from from his interesting liner notes:

   The notebook, bearing the words "di Wolfgango Mozart a Londra" in the
   hand of Leopold, turned up again towards the end of the nineteenth
   century.  The 43 pieces, entirely in Wolfgang's hand, were published
   by Georg Schunemann in 1909 and later in the Henle edition of Mozart's
   Keyboard Pieces.  All but three of the sketches are complete, though
   full of blobs and mistakes, but they are unimpressive on the piano.
   The little boy obviously heard this music in his mind (for the most
   part) as *orchestral music*.  Some pieces even have indications of
   repeated notes in the manner of a short score, and contain intervals
   not playable on the keyboard.

   In later years Mozart's normal practice in composing was to begin by
   writing out the melodic line and the bass with a few indications of
   accompanying figures, working at great speed in order to seize his
   inspiration.  Later he filled in all the other parts, a more leisurely
   activity, during which he sometimes sat and chatted with his friends.

   Most of these pieces are surely sketches of this kind, rather than
   complete keyboard works.  The writing is largely in two parts with
   occasional chords; there is only one indication of tempo and none
   of dynamics.  Of the "Divertimenti" I have put together, only the
   movements of the G minor and the F major were clearly intended to
   belong together.

   I have taken three-quarters of the pieces, omitting a few of the
   less interesting or of keyboard character, and tried to write down
   the sounds in Wolfgang's head.  Impossible task!  I have used the
   instruments available to him more or less in the manner of the time
   (and I possess one advantage over Wolfgang in having lived for years
   with the music he was to write for the remainder of his life).  But
   what I have done has been based less on analysis than on intuition.

   To meet Wolfgang away from his father's careful supervision, as he
   clearly was during the latter's illness, is an astonishing experience.
   There are, of course, false relations, consecutive fifths, and some
   rather unenterprising bass lines.  But the melodic invention is
   already superior to most of his respected contemporaries, the form
   of each piece is surprisingly satisfying, and above all there is a
   Mozartian passion, at least in the G minor Divertimento, which we
   seek in vain in his finished products of those years.  It calls to
   mind the report made on Mozart at that very time by Daines Barrington,
   who wrote of a "Song of Rage" improvised by the little boy on the
   word "Perfido": "In the middle of it, he had worked himself up to
   such a pitch, that he beat his harpsichord like a person possessed,
   rising sometimes in his chair".

   I have kept Mozart's keys, melody, bass, and harmony almost
   throughout, being mostly concerned with adding the inner parts and
   the instrumentation.  The Trio of Divertimento in C was incomplete:
   the last eight bars are mine.  So are the variations in the Adagio
   of the Divertimento in B flat.

These reconstructed works, divertimenti and contredanses, are surprisingly
effective at times.  Each is scored for combinations of woodwinds (flutes,
oboes, horns, and the occasional horn or trumpet) and strings and the
divertimenti last between five and ten minutes.  The Academy of St.
Martin-in-the-fields and Maestro Neville Marriner do the honors.  Trivia
to be sure, but fascinating to get a glimpse of the boy wonder at eight.

Dave
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