Mozart's works arranged thematically

The new Köchel directory (KV or KV²⁰²⁴) represents the current knowledge of Mozart's individual compositions and justifies its high purchase price in every respect. It not only offers current research results, but also refers critically to the information in earlier editions from 1862 (Köchel), 1905 (Waldersee), 1937 (Einstein), 1964 (Giegling et al.).

The numbering of Mozart's works is based on the earliest in each of those editions, e.g. 314, but dispenses with the inconvenient double entries, e.g. 314/285d, and accepts that two entries are necessary for 314, namely for the flute concerto and the oboe concerto. This simplification means that the naming of the works in the chronological order of their presumed composition no longer plays a role, but this is done in a separate, concise overview with the greatest possible differentiation.

The music examples are simplified and do not provide a piano score of the first bars, but only the opening monophonic themes of individual movements. The appendices are also an asset: They contain the spurious works, Mozart's arrangements of other compositions as well as the scattered cadenzas and ornaments that have survived. The instructions for using the index even refer to future additions on the Internet. Unlike the new Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, the Köchel-Verzeichnis is not stingy with references, but lists the origins of all findings in a clear bibliography.

With the Köchel-Verzeichnis, the editors Neal Zaslaw and Ulrich Leisinger, their main collaborators and an army of informants and helpers have achieved a milestone in decades of work, a starting point for future study of Mozart's work, behind which there is no way back. Hopefully the delicate spine binding of this 1391-page single volume will survive its frequent use.

Köchel-Verzeichnis, Thematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, new edition 2024, edited by Neal Zaslaw, presented by Ulrich Leisinger with the assistance of Miriam Pfadt and Ioana Geanta, BV 300, CXXV + 1263 p., € 499.00, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2024