- Paperback: 332 pages
- Publisher: iUniverse (16 Jun 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 059531676X
- ISBN-13: 978-0595316762
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.1 x 2.1 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,924,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
"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.
About the Author
Daniel Leeson is a 30-year veteran of the IBM corporation, a professional performing musician for much of his life, an editor of the Neue Mozart Ausgabe?s 120 volumes of Mozart?s music, and, following retirement from his business career, a teacher of college-level mathematics. An officer of the Mozart Society of America, he is also an award-winning writer of nonfiction, the author of more than 100 technical articles, the co-author or co-editor of four books, and a published fiction writer.
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10 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Fascinating
27 Aug 2004
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Even for non-musicians
31 July 2004
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Very entertaining and informative
9 Aug 2005
Format:Paperback
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.
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