‘Mozart dropped a new single’ – classical fans queue to hear newly discovered work in Leipzig

3 October 2024, 23:04 | Updated: 3 October 2024, 23:08

Band in Leipzig perform Mozart piece

By Kyle Macdonald

Long lines of music lovers formed to hear a piece of history, as a previously unknown Mozart trio received its first public performance. 

It‘s not often that you can hear new music from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. But that’s just what modern audiences enjoyed last weekend, with performances of a newly discovered string trio.

Last Thursday, Leipzig municipal libraries revealed their discovery of a previously unknown work by the great Austrian composer.

The music was found in the collection of the Leipzig Municipal Library while researchers were completing a new edition of the Köchel catalogue of Mozart’s works. 

Korina Kilian from the Leipzig Municipal Libraries, holds a music newly discovered manuscript. Picture: Alamy

Composed for string trio, the seven-movement piece is believed to have been written in the mid to late 1760s, when Mozart was a teenager. The manuscript features dark brown ink on off-white laid paper, with the title Serenate ex C.

The 12-minute piece has now been named Ganz kleine Nachtmusik. The first modern performance of it took place last week at the composer’s birthplace in Salzburg.

Mozart fans queue ahead of the previously unknown work’s premiere in Leipzig. Picture: Alamy

With huge excitement, Ganz kleine Nachtmusik received its German premiere at the Leipzig Opera. On Saturday, 400-metre-long queues formed in Augustusplatz outside the opera house with fans eager to hear the performance. It was played by graduates of the Johann Sebastian Bach Music School.

“Mozart dropped a new single,” commented one viewer on YouTube. Watch it being played above.

Graduates of the Johann Sebastian Bach Music School play the previously unknown work by Mozart. Picture: Alamy

“We are convinced that we can now present a completely unknown, charming piece by the young Mozart,” Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the Mozarteum Foundation, told the German Press Agency.

Leisinger said the piece displayed compositional characteristics which suggested Mozart would have been between 10 and 13 years old at the time of writing. Experts also suggested it was likely the piece was written for an outdoor performance, with the opening march intended to grab the audiences attention. Watch it in full below.

W.A. Mozart - Serenata ex C - Eine ganz kleine Nachtmusik (official release)

“Absolutely beautiful,” commented one Mozart fan, who made it to the Leipzig premiere.

“It’s an honour to be one of the first humans to hear this song in hundreds of years,” wrote another viewer on YouTube.

Later the musicians involved spoke to Classic FM and told of the ‘incredible honour’ of being selected to premiere the piece, but also the mysteriousness of the project, being handed the music without a title or explanation.

“Nobody could have ever imagined what it actually turned out to be,” Violinists David and Vincent Geer and cellist Elisabeth Zimmermann told Classic FM a week later.

“It didn't even occur to us that we might have been chosen for something this big,” Vincent told us. “We thought it would just be an ordinary little gig.”

LIttle did he or his musical partners know that they were going to be part of classical music history.

A close-up view of the manuscript discovered at Leipzig's municipal libraries. Picture: Alamy

The story of this rediscovered piece has gone viral and is surely now one of the biggest music stories of 2024.

In an era of streaming, international pop acts, and trending TikTok sounds, new music of a teenage Mozart still creates a moment like no other.

10 best musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber – ranked

10 best musicals by Andrew Lloyd Webber: from 'Phantom of the Opera' to 'Cats'. Picture: Getty/Alamy

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

 

Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of musical theatre’s most prolific voices. His famous stage works range from biblical to animal – we rank his 10 best. 

Since Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in the 1960s, Andrew Lloyd Webber has made a name for himself as King of the killer show tune, penning some of musical theatre’s catchiest melodies and most rousing choruses.

The subject matter he chooses is startlingly unpredictable. Who would have thought that an obscure Victorian gothic novel – Phantom of the Opera – or a collection of whimsical T.S. Eliot poems about feline psychology – Cats – would be the basis for two of the last half-century’s biggest musical hits?

The last 25 years have seen Lloyd Webber made a life peer, making him a Baron. He is the winner of 45 awards including seven Oliviers, seven Tonys and four Grammys, and owns a number of successful West End theatres through his theatre company.

And so, with more than 60 years of music to choose from, here are 10 of Lloyd Webber’s all-time greatest shows!

1. Love Never Dies

   Love Never Dies, the fan favourite sequel to Lloyd Webber’s megahit Phantom of the Opera, was first previewed on the West End in 2010, but closed soon after and never made it to Broadway.

   The musical was deemed to lack a bit of meat on the bone. But what it lacks in plot, it makes up for in music. The show has a sweeping score and soaring ballads which, when performed by the likes of Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo, transport it to tenth place on the all-time best list.

   

   'Love Never Dies' Anna O'Byrne | Love Never Dies

2. Aspects of Love

   A revival of this 1989 musical reopened in London this year starring Michael Ball and Danielle De Niese but will soon be closing in West End, three months ahead of schedule.

   Its slightly sinister plot includes multiple love affairs with a large age gap. But it has a great energy and a lovely piano-led score, with a strong hit song ‘Love Changes Everything’ – if you can turn a head to the subject matter…

   
   

   

   'Love Changes Everything' Michael Ball | Aspects Of Love

3. School of Rock

   Lloyd Webber’s rock musical had a strong foundation from the off, being based on the 2003 movie hit starring Jack Black as Dewey Finn, a rock guitarist-cum-substitute teacher.

   It’s a classic lovable underdog story, featuring the almighty banger ‘Teacher’s Pet’, as well as an original new rebel anthem, ‘Stick it to the Man’. With a time-tested combination of driving rock rhythms, and soaring musical melodies, this is signature Lloyd Webber and remains a firm audience favourite.

   

   Alex Brightman & the Cast Sing 'Stick it to the Man' From Broadway-Bound SCHOOL OF ROCK

4. Cinderella

   Cinderella was Lloyd Webber’s 13th new musical, and it earned the composer some of the best reviews of his career. Its leading lady, powerhouse musical theatre star Carrie Hope Fletcher, delivers the heart-wrenching ballad ‘I Know I Have a Heart’ with aplomb, and the book, by Oscar-winning Emerald Fennel (The Crown) is funny and charming.

   It was a musical hit by bad timing – not aided perhaps by its renaming to Bad Cinderella for a Broadway crowd – and Covid closures, over which the composer threatened to go to jail to save his show. But after that incredible run on Broadway, we reckon Lloyd Webber went out on a musical high.

   

   Andrew Lloyd Webber & Carrie Hope Fletcher - Bad Cinderella (Official Music Video)

5. Cats

   Neatly fitting into the Venn diagram of completely mad and total genius, Cats marked the end of Lloyd Webber’s run of successful shows with lyricist Tim Rice, instead being based on lyrics from T.S. Eliot’s ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats’. It’s filled with memorable moments including the glorious power ballad ‘Memory’.

   Cats has made headlines in the last few years following a Hollywood film adaptation by which Lloyd Webber said he was so “emotionally damaged”, that he had to buy a therapy dog. “The one good thing to come out of it is my little Havanese puppy,” the composer dryly told a journalist.

   
   

   

   'Memory' Elaine Paige | Cats The Musical

6. Sunset Boulevard

   Sunset Boulevard is a deliciously intense adaptation of Billy Wilder’s 1950 film. Coming back to the West End this year starring Nicole Scherzinger as the immortal Norma Desmond, its hit songs ‘As If We Never Said Goodbye’ and ‘With One Look’ put it up there with Lloyd Webber’s best. And no one does it like Glenn Close...

   

   The Fabulous Glenn Close Sings 'With One Look' | Sunset Boulevard | The Shows Must Go On!

7. Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat

   Now we move into the reliable realm of the longlasting Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice partnership. After meeting as teenagers, the duo would work prolifically together in a fruitful musical collaboration which produced three hit shows: Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Joseph.

   Based on the Bible’s book of Genesis and originating from a cantata written for school choir, it’s one in a line of Lloyd Webber musicals with unpredictable origins that work startlingly well in musical form. Joseph is jam-packed with catchy tunes including the wide-eyed ballad ‘Any Dream Will Do’, and is a favourite at school productions today.

   

   Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jason Donovan - Any Dream Will Do

8. Evita

   Did you know this Tony-winning show started as a rock opera concept album? The unlikely 70s hit show, containing the heartaching ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ – which repeats rather a lot in various iterations throughout the musical, not that we’re complaining – has yet another unlikely subject matter, being based on the wife of an Argentinian president.

   

   'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' Elaine Paige | EVITA

9. Jesus Christ Superstar

   It’s hard to imagine this being written today, but boy does it have an impact. This adrenaline-pumping rock opera is well within the Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice partnership, and before it was taken over by Cats in the 80s and 90s, it was the West End’s longest running musical.

   The music is thrilling, especially the moment Lloyd Webber forgot his ‘Jesus’ actor was human and gave him a stratospheric G5 to sing at the climax of ‘Gethsemane’.

   

   Gethsemane (Steve Balsamo) - 'Musicals in Ahoy' Concert 2004 | Jesus Christ Superstar

10. The Phantom of the Opera

    The most successful British musical in history, The Phantom of the Opera is an 80s extravaganza of decadent visuals and ageless music. It’s by far Lloyd Webber’s strongest score, from the delicate soprano plea ‘Think Of Me’ to the bare-chested, full throttle ‘The Point of No Return’. Devastatingly romantic, it’s been an incredible showcase over the years for some of the most dizzying soprano voices – from Lesley Garrett to Sierra Boggess.

 

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber to write new work for King Charles III, as coronation music announced

18 February 2023, 22:30 | Updated: 20 February 2023, 12:03

Music at His Majesty the King’s coronation at Westminster Abbey. Picture: Getty

By Kyle Macdonald

 

Twelve new works will form the musical centrepiece of King Charles III’s coronation at Westminster Abbey, casting a spotlight on leading British composers and performers.

Buckingham Palace has revealed the music at His Majesty the King’s coronation will include a new Coronation Anthem by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and eleven other pieces personally commissioned by King Charles.

Lloyd Webber said he hopes his new anthem, which is scored for the Westminster Abbey choir and organ, and the ceremonial brass and orchestra, “reflects this joyful occasion”.

The new works for the service at London’s Westminster Abbey on Saturday 6 May 2022 are each by world-renowned British composers. They will be performed by leading classical artists of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Westminster Abbey’s recently appointed organist and master of the choristers, Andrew Nethsingha, will direct the music of the service and oversee all musical arrangements.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and King Charles III. Picture: Getty

Joining Lloyd Webber in composing music for the historic occasion are Master of the King’s Music, Judith Weir, Sarah Class, Nigel Hess, Paul Mealor, Tarik O’Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Shirley J. Thompson, Roderick Williams, and Classic FM’s Composer in Residence, Debbie Wiseman.

Wiseman said it was “an immense honour” to have been asked to compose music for the coronation.

“Bringing together composers, musicians and singers from every corner of our richly varied and colourful musical culture, this momentous ceremony marries the new and diverse with the established, well-loved and traditional,” she added. 

There will also be a new commission for solo organ, weaving together musical themes from countries across the Commonwealth by British organist and composer Iain Farrington.

‘God Save the King’, sung by soprano Alexandra Stevenson

Performances in the service will be led by some of the finest operatic voices of our time, with Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel, South African soprano Pretty Yende and British baritone Roderick Williams all named as soloists.

A special coronation orchestra will be conducted by Royal Opera House conductor Sir Antonio Pappano.

The official Royal Harpist Alis Huws will perform as part of the orchestra, in recognition of The King’s long-standing affection for Wales and the country’s musical traditions.

His Royal Highness and Sir Antonio Pappano at the Royal College of Music in 2020. Picture: Getty

Before the service, Sir John Eliot Gardiner will conduct The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque soloists in a pre-service programme of choral music.

This programme is expected to feature the music of William Byrd, George Frideric Handel, Edward Elgar, Hubert Parry and Sir Karl Jenkins.

The service will be sung by The Choir of Westminster Abbey and The Choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, together with girl choristers from the Chapel Choir of Methodist College, Belfast and Truro Cathedral Choir.

The Ascension Choir will sing gospel music as part of the service, which will also feature Greek Orthodox music from the Byzantine Chant Ensemble in tribute to his late father, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Fanfares will be played by the State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry and the Fanfare Trumpeters of the Royal Air Force, and the King’s Scholars of Westminster School will proclaim the traditional ‘Vivat’ acclamations.