Franz Xaver Mozart
Complete Piano Works, Volume I
Franz Xaver Mozart was W. A. Mozart’s youngest son. Intended for a career in music by his mother from the very beginning, he followed in his father’s footsteps but was not able to step out from under his shadow during his lifetime.
In our edition in two volumes (Volume II, HN 959) we are publishing all of his piano works for two and three hands for the fi rst time. Volume I contains nine, in part very extensive variation cycles (one of them is a first publication), an expansive Fantasia in A major (also a fi rst publication) and the Sonata op. 10 with four movements. A cycle of variations for three hands brings the volume to an original close.
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About the Composer
Franz Xaver Mozart
Austrian composer and pianist. In addition to his compositions for piano (including concerti, sonatas, polonaises) he wrote song cycles, chamber music, and other things. His transcriptions of works by his father are important in the reception history of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
| 1791 | Born in Vienna on July 26, the youngest son of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His mother Constanze set him on an early path toward a career in music. In Prague he receives his first piano lessons from Franz Xaver Niemetschek, and in Vienna he is taught by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Antonio Salieri, and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, among others. |
| 1802 | His Piano Quartet in G minor, op. 1, is published. |
| 1808–10 | In Pidkamin, Galicia, near Lemberg (Lviv), he is appointed personal music teacher to the children of Count Baworowski. |
| from 1813 | Works as a freelance composer and teacher. |
| 1818 | Genesis and publication of his Piano Concerto in E-flat major, op. 25. |
| 1819–22 | An extended artistic tour takes him through the metropolises of Europe, including Prague, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Berlin, Venice, and Salzburg. |
| 1826 | He founds the St Cecilia Choir of Lviv. |
| 1838 | Back in Vienna he gives concerts and teaches. Ernst Pauer is among his pupils. |
| 1841 | He is named honorary music director of the Salzburg Cathedral Music Society, and of the Mozarteum. His inaugural winter concert that year popularizes Chopin’s works in Vienna. |
| 1842 | He performs in Salzburg as part of ceremonies to consecrate the monument honoring his father. |
| 1844 | Dies in Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary) on July 29. |
About the Authors
Rolf Koenen (Fingering)
As a pupil, Prof. Rolf Koenen, born in 1946 in Duisburg, had already had contact with Ewald Zimmermann, the first editor at the young publishing house. He studied the piano at the Folkwangschule in Essen with Detlef Kraus, with Ludwig Hoffmann in Munich and with Maria Tipo in Florence.
He gave concerts in a permanent duo partnership with Hansjörg Schellenberger, who was later to become the solo oboe player with the Berlin Philharmonic, and made several recordings with the Deutsche Grammophon-Gesellschaft, with Denon and Sony. Other chamber music partners included András Adorján, Stefan Dohr, Wolfgang Schulz, Claes H. Ahnsjö. Following a teaching position in Munich, Rolf Koenen was appointed as a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts in 1982.