Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart crosses the article via a posthumous portrait painted by Barbara Krafft in 1819. This late visage accompanies the return of a working notebook that remained silent for a long time. Credits: Barbara Krafft, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
A 44‑page notebook has been identified in the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It shifts the focus onto Mozart’s last Paris visit in 1778. Rather than simply adding unpublished pages to the composer’s catalogue, it shows Mozart at work. The musician appears there as much a teacher as a creator, in daily exchange with an aristocratic pupil. Verified by the Mozarteum in Salzburg, it contains composition lessons and seven pieces for flute and harp. It will be unveiled on June 21, 2026 at the BnF Richelieu, before a broadcast on France Musique.
An Anonymous Notebook That Became A Major Source
The discovery first comes down to a conservation gesture. On February 2, 2026, François‑Pierre Goy examined an anonymous music notebook from the late 18th century. He was then curator in charge of pre‑1800 collections at the BnF Music Department. Graphic, material and musical clues pointed him toward a rare hypothesis: one of the hands could be that of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
According to the Bibliothèque nationale de France, this initial identification was internally confirmed by Laurence Decobert. The musicologist is a former head of heritage collections at the Music Department. In April, Armin Brinzing, director of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, validated the attribution. The institution now presents the notebook as an unpublished autograph manuscript linked to the composer’s Paris stay.
The object is not a large stage score, nor a finished score intended immediately for printing. It’s a working notebook, preserved in the BnF holdings, where composition exercises and short pieces appear. This modest nature explains its interest: it documents Mozart the teacher, teaching, correcting and proposing musical ideas.
What The Manuscript Says About Paris In 1778
The notebook relates to Mozart’s last Paris stay, from March to September 1778. It concerns Marie‑Louise‑Philippine de Bonnières de Guînes, an accomplished harpist and daughter of the Duke of Guînes. Her father was also a flutist and the commissioner of the Flute and Harp Concerto KV 299. According to the BnF, Mozart gave her daily composition lessons from May to July.
The document gathers seven pieces for flute and harp, as well as exercises. Six pieces are complete, according to the BnF; the last remained unfinished, indicate elements reported by the AFP. The decisive point lies elsewhere: Mozart’s and his pupil’s hands mix there in varying proportions. The notebook is therefore not a collection of seven works entirely composed by Mozart. It rather testifies to a transmission, with its trials, corrections and shared sections.
This nuance is what gives the manuscript musicological interest. In his letters, Mozart harshly judged his pupil’s compositional abilities. That view is no longer sufficient to summarize the pedagogical relationship. The BnF emphasizes that the pieces always start from an idea proposed by Mozart, but that they show a joint effort. For music history, the notebook therefore adds less a “rediscovered masterpiece.” It mainly provides a precise document on a teaching practice.
From the Archive Shelf to the Music Stand
The notebook’s trajectory also tells how a document can change meaning within a collection. The BnF links it to scores confiscated in 1794 from the Duke of Guînes’s home. During the French Revolution, those scores entered the public collections. Material marks connect it notably to a French copy of the Flute and Harp Concerto already noted by specialists.
The link to concerto KV 299 gives the BnF’s Mozart manuscript particular significance. The Duke of Guînes played the flute, his daughter the harp. The two instruments structure both the concerto commission and the recovered exercises. In Paris, the harp was then very present in salons. These pages open a window onto a rare repertoire. They also shed light on an instrument Mozart rarely used outside this commission.
The BnF Music Department already preserves a significant collection of Mozart autograph manuscripts. The institution cites 45 musical manuscripts, including those of Don Giovanni and Piano Concerto No. 23. The new notebook ranks among the rare items that have belonged to the Bibliothèque nationale’s collections from the start.
A First Framed Listening
The first public performance is scheduled for Sunday, June 21, 2026 in the Oval Room of the BnF Richelieu. Radio France indicates that Mathilde Caldérini will play these pages during the manuscript presentation. She is principal flute of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. She will be accompanied by Nicolas Tulliez, harpist.
The recording will be broadcast the next day on France Musique, according to a second Radio France press release. These details move the notebook from the archive to sound. An object long silent finally becomes audible. Nevertheless, the public presentation alone does not fully summarize the discovery’s significance.
Le Monde attended the musical preparation. It describes pieces totaling about twenty minutes, close to a galant style, between serenade and dance suite. This first listening does not exhaust the document’s interest. It makes it audible, but the main issue remains access to a working Mozart. He is captured in a teaching context, in a capital where he still hoped to relaunch his career.
Why The Discovery Matters
The rarity of an unknown Mozart autograph manuscript is enough to explain the attention. But the notebook’s significance lies above all in what it adds to the Paris 1778 narrative. That year, the composer sought commissions and worked for patrons. He composed for specific instruments. He also clashed with a milieu that did not meet all his expectations. The manuscript inscribes these tensions in concrete pages: French paper, exercises, repeats, alternating hands.
It also reminds that musical heritage is not only made of monumental scores. A working source can change the understanding of a work, a social network and a pedagogical gesture. The BnF has not yet highlighted, among consulted sources, a definitive catalogue entry specific to this notebook. At this stage, the institution’s information remains the most solid. It is complemented by Radio France’s press releases and journalistic reports documenting the presentation.
For performers as for researchers, caution is essential. It is not a matter of unreservedly adding seven “new works” to Mozart’s catalogue. Rather, one must read a manuscript where a master’s idea becomes exercise, dialogue and sometimes a playable piece. It is precisely this intermediate zone, between lesson and music, that gives the discovery its value.