SALZBURG, Austria (Reuters) – An Austrian pianist, Florian Birsak performed two newly discovered pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the first time in public on Sunday, August 2, 2009 in a house where the master composer once lived.

The concerto movement and a prelude were originally judged by their archivist, the International Mozarteum Foundation, to be anonymous works. Further analysis determined they had been composed by Mozart when he was 7-or 8-years-old.Both pieces were transcribed in the writing of Mozart’s father Leopold but the analysis showed he must have done so from what his prodigy child was playing on a piano, the foundation’s Mozart researcher Ulrich Leisinger told a news conference.

He said the young Mozart almost certainly asked his father to put the pieces to paper because he could not yet do musical notation, and later made his own corrections.

“This was a young composer running riot to show what he was capable of. The piece does contain real technical mistakes and clumsy moments that an old hand like Leopold Mozart would never have made,” Leisinger said.

“Neither the compositional style nor hasty correction-ridden hand-writing are consistent with Leopold’s authorship.”

Both pieces were played by pianist Florian Birsak on Mozart’s own piano in the Salzburg house where he lived for several years as a young man, and that is now a museum.

The International Mozarteum Foundation was founded as a non-profit organisation in 1880 to focus on the life and work of Mozart by holding concerts, running museums and promoting research regarding the composer.

Mozart was born in Salzburg in 1756 and died in Vienna in 1791 at the age of 35.

He began playing piano at an early age and was composing from the age of five, going on to write more than 600 works and becoming one of the most prolific and beloved classical composers.

This is not the first time in recent years that works by Mozart have resurfaced posthumously. Last year a library in Nantes, France, reported finding that a musical score that had been donated by a private collector at the end of the 19th century was a Mozart original rather than a copy as earlier thought.

Sheet music recently identified as part of a childhood creation by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is displayed during a press conference held by the research department of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009. Mozart’s momentous legacy grew Sunday as researchers unveiled two piano pieces recently identified as childhood creations by the legendary composer. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)

More information, audio clips and score of this two new pieces
1. Piano piece in G (NMA Nr. 50)
2. Concerto movement in G (NMA Nr. 51)

please go to International Mozarteum Foundation

Source from Taipei Times

Taipei – Japan’s Yamaha Corp, the world largest piano manufacturer, will shut its Taiwan plant later this month due to high production costs in Taiwan, Yamaha’s agent said Wednesday.

‘The Taiwan Yamaha Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co Ltd will close on July 25. Its 100-or-so workers will be laid off with severance pay,’ a staff member from the Yamaha KSH Music Co, Yamaha’s agent, told the German News Agency dpa by phone.

‘It is a pity because the Taiwan Yamaha plant sells the world’s best-quality Yamaha pianos at the lowest price. It has made a great contribution to music education in Taiwan,’ he added.

The Yamaha Taiwan company confirmed its upcoming closure, saying it is part of Yamaha Corp’s global restructuring.

‘In future, production in Taiwan will be assigned to Yamaha’s plant in Japan or other countries,’ it said in a statement.

In its heyday, the Taiwan Yamaha plant produced 10,000 pianos per month for domestic sale and export, but now its makes only 1,000 per month.

‘The Yamaha Corp thinks production costs are too high,’ Tsai Chen-cheng, the plant’s sales manager, told the United Daily News.

But Yamaha Corp’s agent in Taiwan, Yamaha KSH Music Co, will continue to sell Yamaha pianos, offer after-sales service to clients and run more than 100 Yamaha music classrooms which teach piano and other musical instruments.

The Yamaha plant, located in Taoyuan County near Taipei, was opened in 1969 as a joint venture between the local partner and the Yamaha Corp, which has links with the Yamaha Motor Corp, producer of Yamaha motorbikes.

Yamaha Corp was founded by Torakusu Yamaha in 1887 in Hamamatsu, Japan. It produced its first Yamaha piano in 1900 and by 1991 had manufactured 5 million Yamaha pianos.

The Taiwan company is one of Yamaha Corp’s overseas plants, which produce Yamaha pianos using materials and technology supplied by the Yamaha Corp.

There are two Yamaha plants in China and one each in Indonesia, Taiwan and Britain.

Yamaha Corp shut its piano production line in the United States two years ago and plans to close its plant in Britain in October.

NOTHING brings people together like music, whether it be the sweet melodies flowing from the strings of a violin, the beat of a drum or even the tinkle of a piano. Music transcends differences and inspires the best in people, regardless of their race, creed or colour.

The Persatuan Chopin Malaysia will be organising the 1st ASIAN Grand Piano Concert at the Plenary Hall, 3rd Floor, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Friday 12 June 2009.

The concert will feature the collaboration between the Malaysian Chopin Society and the Korean Piano Society to promote cultural and musical exchange between Malaysia and South Korea.

The main aim of staging this concert is to provide a platform for talented young pianists, piano teachers and reputed piano professors mainly from Malaysia and Korea as well as from other Asian countries to come together to share their experiences and showcase their talent and virtuosity in music.

The society also hopes to inspire and encourage those interested in learning to play the piano by supporting budding and talented young Malaysian musicians in fulfilling their career aspirations and helping them develop an appreciation for classical as well as other kinds of music.

This concert has attracted 32 participants (28 professors and four children) from Korea; four from Hong Kong and about 100 participants from Malaysia. This concert has attracted 32 participants (28 professors and four children) from Korea; four from Hong Kong and about 100 participants from Malaysia.

Pianists appearing in pairs will be playing a repertoire of classical compositions on four 9-foot high grand pianos simultaneously throughout the concert. This is the first time ever that a piano concert on such a grand scale is being organised in Malaysia.

The concert will be divided into two sessions: the Junior (6pm-7pm) and the Gala Concert (8.15pm-10.30pm).

In conjunction with the concert, the Malaysian Chopin Society will be hosting a forum titled In Pursuit of Excellence In Music Education on effective ways to develop young musicians, at the Centre on June 13 from 10.30am to 1pm.

Experts from Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea and Indo­nesia will be on the panel.

For details, call Felicia Chen at 012-6657 863 or visit Chopin Society Malaysia

The Inner Workings of One Note in an Upright Piano

The animation in the illustration is in slow motion. The actual time from when a finger begins to depress a key to the point where the hammer strikes the string can be less than tenth of a second.