In search of unknown Mozartiana

A team of musicologists is reviewing 19th century copies of musical scores from a Polish monastery’s archives in hopes that some might prove to be previously unknown works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the lead scholar said Tuesday.

The team is focused on nine scores, though the musicologists will review 2,000 from the Jasna Gora monastery in Czestochowa, southern Poland.

“The scores could be compilations from various Mozart works, or compositions by other authors just signed in his name, or -- in the luckiest case for us -- they could be unknown authentic Mozart,” said Remigiusz Pospiech, head of the research team. “In that case we could talk of a sensation.”

Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, said it was “highly unlikely” that new works by Mozart would be discovered. “Mozart kept a catalog of all his works from 1784 on,” Leisinger said. “This catalog does not contain any major work we are missing.”