The New Mozart Edition offers researchers a musicologically unimpeachable text based on all the available sources (generally Mozart's autograph manuscripts). At the same time, it also serves as an aid to authentic performances.

The principal Series I to IX, containing Mozart's actual œuvre, appeared between 1956 and 1991. They are regarded as a supreme achievement of Mozart scholarship in our time; modern performances of Mozart's music are unthinkable without them. The important supplementary volumes shed fresh and illuminating light on neglected aspects of Mozart's creative work, such als his activities as a teacher or as an arranger of other composer's works.

The edition is divided into thirty-five groups of works combined into ten series. Each group includes Mozart's finished works in chronological oder; sketches, drafts and fragments of the works are located in an appendix to the relevant volume. In addition to the printed text, each volume of music contains a detailed preface and facsimile reproductions from the source material. It is also accompanied by a separately published critical report.

The critical commentary section of the New Mozart Edition is complete.