K452 — a Major Mozart Mystery
After first performing his quintet for piano and winds in 1784, Mozart described it to his father as “the best work I have ever composed”. But, mysteriously, it was not published for several years and then in the form of a quartet for piano and strings — and with a bogus ending.
The present edition presents this excellent transcription in Urtext form, and at the same time explains the strange circumstances that surrounded the disappearance and rediscovery of the manuscript. For the curious, both the “bogus” ending and a more Mozartian version are given.
Descriptive leaflet (pdf)