Mozart, W A - 12 Petites Pieces (First Set)

Prolific though he was, Mozart left behind an insufficient quantity of simple keyboard music to satisfy the ever-expanding student and amateur markets. Following his death, publishers sought to meet this demand by releasing anthologies of pieces adapted from Mozart's compositions for other instruments or ensembles. One such collection was this set of XII petites pièces, originally issued by several publishers just before and after 1800. Intriguingly, while 10 of these pieces can be identified, two of them have not yet been located in any other source, suggesting either that they are forgeries or that they are the only surviving versions of otherwise lost Mozart works. Given that one early publisher of the XII petites pièces, J. P. von Thonus, was closely associated with the Mozart family while another, Artaria, included the two unidentified pieces conspicuously at the very beginning of the volume, it seems likely that both were confident that these works were genuine.

Piece No. XII – an Allegretto based on the third movement of the Piano Trio K564 – is on the ABRSM piano syllabus 2017-2018 for Grade 5.