What is the lost story of 'the other Mozart'? A new feature documentary investigates a 250 year old musical mystery.
What is the lost story of the other Mozart? Discover Maria-Anna, a child prodigy forgotten to time, as seen through the eyes of musicians, musicologists, and researchers.Maria-Anna (Nannerl) Mozart was, like her younger brother, a child prodigy. Together the children toured much of Europe performing as "wunderkinder" to the Kings and Queens of Europe. Contemporary reviews praised Maria, and she was even billed first on promotional posters.
As a little girl she could perform in public, but as a woman, she was retired home as it was unseemly for a woman of her status to perform in public. But when she reached 16, social norms compelled her to retire. But she did not give up. Tantalising clues exist of her continued virtuoso playing as well as her interest in composing music. She continued to practise three hours a day and had an extensive and detailed correspondence with her brother centred on music. She wrote music and evidence shows she sent at least one composition to Wolfgang and Papa. Wolfgang praised it as "beautiful" and encouraged her to write more. Her father didn't, as far as we know, say anything about it.
What happened to her music? None of her music has survived. Or did it? Evidence of her musical collaboration with her brother exists. A dramatic musical investigation unfolds around the world to find out Maria-Anna's story through researchers, musicologists, historians, performances by world-leading orchestras and evocative recreations of the past.
Through it, we discover an intriguing story of why the life and work of Maria-Anna Mozart has gone missing all this time. Mozart's Sister documentary relooks at her role in history working from original sources, early manuscript scores, letters between the siblings and other materials.
Using recreations and expert interviews we explore the fascinating theory that Maria-Anna Mozart played a larger role in her brother's music than is previously known. What happened to her compositions? In doing so, Mozart's Sister turns our gaze towards the unrecognised female creators of our time. Why are there still so few female composers? From multi-awarded Director/Producer Madeleine Hetherton-Miau and Producer Rebecca Barry, MOZART'S SISTER is a 'musical-mystery' story that explores the lost talent of Maria-Anna Mozart.
