Mozart The Performer: Variations on The Showman's Art

This album attempt to show how Leopold Mozart could have influenced his well-known son Wolfgang Amadeus by placing the most famous works of Leopold Mozart against the early works of Wolfgang Amadeus. These works are performed by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra led by Ton Koopman, and Tini Mathot on pianoforte. One side note, while Die Bauernhochzeit and Cassatio ex ("toy symphony") are considered to be works by Leopold Mozart by the creators of this album, others argue the "toy symphony" must have been composed by Joseph Haydn or Edmund Angerer. There is little consensus within the musicological debate.

Today, with authenticity a crucial concern in musical performance, the idea of arranging piano concertos by Mozart for chamber forces seems almost bizarre. But in the 1830s, when the publisher Schott commissioned Johann Nepomuk Hummel to produce these versions of seven of Mozart’s most popular concertos for piano, flute, violin and cello, it was a common practice aimed at facilitating performances of orchestral works in domestic settings. And few could have brought such insights to the procedure as Hummel, one of the earliest protagonists on the stage of the virtuoso era, but also regarded by his contemporaries as the last legitimate representative of the ‘classical’ style.

"The sonatas of Mozart are unique," said Artur Schnabel. "They are too easy for children, and too difficult for artists." It was performances like Mikhail Pletnev's that inspired Schabel's maxim. Pletnev's technique is awe-inspiring, and the smooth, room-sized sound he gets out of a grand piano promise wonderful things as one begins listening to the disc. But there's a certain refusal to fool with the music, a Zen detachment perhaps, that's necessary for a really good Mozart performance, and Pletnev does too much tinkering.

In 1877 Edvard Grieg informed his publisher that he had added “a free, second piano to several of Mozart’s sonatas.” As he later emphasised, his modernization “did not change a single one of Mozart’s notes”, but constituted “a way of showing admiration for an old master.” Grieg also intended the pieces for a duo of student at teacher; here the performers are a pianist of exceptional distinction and her legendary mentor: Elisabeth Leonskaja and Sviatoslav Richter.

It was an awakening experience when Christoph Koncz, principal violinist of the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor, first held Mozarts original concert violin in his hands. This was the violin on which Mozart had played as concertmaster in the Salzburg Hofkapelle: a Baroque violin that was carefully preserved after Mozarts death and treated almost as a holy relic. The idea of recording Mozarts five violin concertos for the first time on the composers own concert violin was one that Christoph Koncz found irresistibly fascinating. Theres a close connection between these concertos and this instrument, and Mozarts own experience of this violin undoubtedly inspired him greatly.

Award-winning accordionist Vincent van Amsterdam performs J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, one of the great masterpieces of Western music. The music of J.S. Bach has been heard in countless guises, from those intended to be meticulous in their authenticity, to loose, improvisatory interpretations. Bach’s treatment of his own music was practical and versatile, often tailored to the musicians available rather than an ideal ensemble, so it seems likely that the composer himself would treat this spectrum of approaches with generosity and pleasure.

Riccardo Chailly was born into a musical family in Milan. He studied at the conservatories in Milan and Perugia and received specialized training in conducting from Franco Ferrara at his Siena summer courses. At the age of 20, Chailly became assistant conductor to Claudio Abbado at Milan’s La Scala. He made his opera debut there in 1978 and was soon in great demand at the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls.

Every major conductor, and most not-so-major ones, comes around to recording Eine kleine Nachtmusik, but not so many do it as well as George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra strings. And let’s face it, you won’t find a period-instrument ensemble that plays with anything like this level of polish. The fact is, Szell’s conception of Mozart was not terribly far from “period” sensibilities: restrained use of vibrato, incisive rhythms, crisp ensemble, lively tempos, but also a welcome degree of warmth to the sound and of course incredible ensemble discipline and some of the best players on the planet. And he had real period instruments, meaning performers who owned top quality old violins and bows, not inferior modern reproductions of them. The result is as lovely a performance of Mozart’s perennially delicious Serenade as we are ever likely to hear.