It’s just as well that Dan Leeson is an honest man. If he weren’
t, he could surely make millions of illicit dollars: for his book
The Mozart Forgeries shows that he has the boldness of ideas and
the masterly command of detail needed to pull off a spectacular
act of forgery.
This book – and let me warn you that once you pick it up you won’
t be able to put it down till 318 pages later – is an account of
how two men seek to enrich themselves by such an act. It involves
the ‘rediscovery’ of two of the most precious of the lost Mozart
manuscripts. Dan Leeson knows, from his own research, just what
is involved in constructing manuscripts that could pass for
Mozart’s own, and also in devising plausible circumstances for
their rediscovery and their launch on to the world of Mozart
scholarship and music antiquarianism.
It’s a fascinating story, underpinned by serious scholarship but
related with enormous vitality and sense of fun. And like all
good thrillers it has unexpected twists in the tail. Every
Mozart-lover will want to read it, and will learn while doing so,
but you don’t have to be a Mozartian to be intrigued by this
gripping and entertaining book.
. . . Stanley Sadie, Editor
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1980
and 2001 editions
Author of several books and hundreds of
articles on Mozart