What is it like to rediscover a centuries-old work by Mozart? Clive Paget talks to the Austrian academic who exhumed a forgotten 12-minute serenade and one of the musicians who have recorded it.

A portrait of Mozart, around the age of 13, in Verona c.1770, attributed to Italian painter Giambettino Cignaroli. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Salzburg. Spring, 2023, and an innocuous-looking package drops onto the desk of Ulrich Leisinger, Director of the Research Department at the International Mozarteum Foundation. Loosening the wrappings, a dun-coloured folder emerges containing a set of faded instrumental parts. On the front, in dark brown ink on medium-white handmade paper are the magic words: Serenata, Ex, C. Violino Primo, Violino Secondo è Basso. Del Sigl Wo[l]fgang Mozart.

A flick through the pages confirms...