The Mozart Forgeries

By Daniel N. Leeson

Book Overview

"Mozart's music, forged manuscripts, and a murder Could any music aficionado who enjoys a unique, fascinating, and well-told tale ask for more?" - Conductor George Cleve, Music Director, San Francisco's Midsummer Mozart Music Festival.

The idea of creating a counterfeit of a genuine Mozart manuscript is outrageous, but to attempt the forging of two such compositions for the purpose of a technical/musical swindle is an order of magnitude more aggressive. Yet that is exactly what Forger, a counterfeiting genius, and Librarian, an eighteenth century document specialist, decide to do, their motivation being a $20,000,000 price tag. They are faced with incredible impediments not the least of which is the authentication of both documents by some of the world's leading Mozart scholars. From any perspective, the effort appears preposterous.

Their choice of compositions are the lost manuscripts of Mozart's clarinet concerto and his quintet for clarinet and strings. Each stage of the effort is, by itself, an awesome undertaking, what with handwriting, paper, ink, watermarks, pens, and a great deal of imprecise history surrounding both works-- the originals of which disappeared around 1800. Together, they combine to create a task so technically difficult that the probability of success is only slightly less than winning the Irish sweepstakes without buying a ticket.

The author, one of America's leading Mozart authorities, is a prize-winning technical writer who also dabbles in fiction. His imaginative and skillful handling of the story's details walks the reader--sometimes not very gently--through each stage of the awesome effort. This entirely fictitious story is his contribution to the events of 2006, which are intended to commemorate the quarter millennium of Mozart's birth.

www.leesonbooks.com.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 059531676X
• ISBN13: 9780595316762
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Very entertaining and informative

My husband recommended this book to me. He is a clarinetist and obviously enjoyed the subject matter. I am a violinist and am very familiar with both the Clarinet Concerto and the Quintet. Clarinetists are notorious for their attention to detail. My husband was very complimentary of the research and attention to detail that the author exhibited. I, in addition to admiring the aforementioned, enjoyed it for its fast pace and imaginative plot. I enjoyed this book so much that I sent a copy to my father who restores artwork for a living. He also enjoys copying famous works of art. I enclosed a card that read, don't get any bright ideas, when I sent him the book. Overall a very enjoyable read, highly recommended.

Fascinating

The question to be answered in any review is whether a person should plunk down their hard earned money for a book. In the case of Dan Leeson's Mozart Forgeries the answer is a resounding yes! Leeson's story revolves around two characters a master forger and a rare music librarian. The two team up to pull off the crime of their careers. The payoff...$20 million plus! How? By forging two missing Mozart autographs (the original handwritten music). The obstacles to the scheme are monumental since a great deal of Mozart's work survives. There are numerous Mozart document experts in the world who in a moment could spot the smallest flaw in the paper, ink or writing style of Mozart. There are also the music experts who might challenge the forgeries based on the musical content. Then there are issues such as how the documents were found and where. The delight in reading Leeson's book is that he has his characters take us one by one over these obstacles with no serious leaps of faith that leave a reader disappointed. A reader might easily surmise that Leeson has a vast amount of knowledge when it comes to rare music autographs as well as Mozart and they would be correct. If you love a good crime novel that offers plenty of twists and no lapses of believability, then the Mozart Forgeries are for you.

Even for non-musicians

Written with imagination, and a very tight plot with surprises worthy of O. Henry, this book delights the reader-at least this one. One might think that pages of description, nay, precise instructions, for making an ink that would have been made in the 1700's, or making a type of paper, or wiring a screen which will produce the exact watermark on that paper needed for a forgery might be boring: instead, those pages are fascinating. Throw in a light touch of humor such as the following in describing a forged letter supposedly written by France's Louis XVI: "The forgery, dated some years before the revolution robbed both him and his wife of their heads, was made. . . ." There is vocabulary to learn, but one becomes hungry for the specifics that will "prove" the authenticity of the autograph. "Autograph" is used here in a way specific to the subject matter, for instance. There is plenty of suspense as the story proceeds, and sometimes we are given a "heads up" for a turn in the plot: "As it turned out, his intuition was right and Forger's decision to visit La Vegas proved to be a grievous mistake." Even people who know nothing about music will love this book. Mozart aficionados should gobble it up.

Must reading for those with music AND larceny on their mind

This tome is loaded with details...Surely not the kind that would hold the interest of just any casual reader. BUT, if classical music is your passion, and your taste in literature runs to the likes of the DaVinci Code or perhaps Sherlock Holmes, then get out the itty bitty nite lite and give this book a whirl. Ok, so perhaps there is a bit more about ancient paper making than I care to know, but the big payoff is....are these guys REALLY going to pull off the forgery of a lifetime --the sudden reappearance of 2 Mozart autographs that were likely pawned by the composer's demonic clarinetist/masonic brother, Anton Stadler. The fun for the musician is wondering how Forger and Librarian would resolve the controversies that occupy modern and traditional interpretations of the works. Being a musician helps...being a clarinetist, even moreso, and having played the pieces...kaboom! Only one bit of criticism...Forger and Librarian talk to eachother -and even to others -in a very formalized way. No one talks like that in real life...or perhaps it is a conceit that allows the reader not to get too familiar with them. No big deal, just a curiosity.

The best plot in modern history

Not only was this a fantastic plot, but the meticulous attention to research was impeccable. From the beginning, when Librarian went to pick up Forger on the day of his release from prison to team up to pull off the biggest scam in modern times, to the end, when they duped everybody--including the insurance company, the reader is led on a merry chase. They went to extreme details to duplicate not only Mozart's style of writing, the paper (with the age of the paper exact), but even the type of bird that provided the feather quill and the ingredients in the ink. This is one of the most brilliant pieces of modern literature I have read. I sincerely hope there will be more books forthcoming from Mr. Leeson, who is, I understand, an expert on Mozart. I can only imagine that Mozart is smiling as he looks down, and he is thinking: I couldn't have done it better myself. This is a read that I highly recommend, whether you like classical music or not. Janet Elaine Smith, author of 12 novels and one non-fiction book