Mozart's masterpiece breaks record

30 Nov -0001, 12:00 am   -   Source: AP
Share This
A page of Mozart's manuscript has fetched a record price at auction (AAP)

A page of Mozart's manuscript has fetched a record price at auction (AAP)

Just one page from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's sketch for the Sinfonia Concertante in E flat has sold for a record price for a single leaf in the master's hand

Just one page from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's sketch for the Sinfonia Concertante in E flat has sold for a record price for a single leaf in the master's hand.

Maggs Brothers of London bought the manuscript for an unidentified private client for £110,900 ($A261,002), Sotheby's said.

The previous record was £89,500 ($A210,637) for a sheet bearing the notes for the opening Rondo K.386 in A major, sold at Sotheby's in 1998.

One page of the leaf contained a 27-bar sketch for the cadenza for the first movement, notated in brown ink on four two-stave systems.

The other contained two autograph horn parts for unidentified instrument works.

Sotheby's said that only two other leaves of the manuscript of the Concertante survive.

It was composed in 1779.

"The Sinfonia Concertante was Mozart's first truly great masterpiece," said Simon Maguire, senior specialist in Sotheby's Music department.

"Together with Bach and Beethoven, he is one of the three pre-eminent composers of all time, and this was the work where the young 23-year old first attained such a level.

"It is one of Mozart's greatest works, and we are thrilled to have handled a manuscript that takes us so close to its original inception."
  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube