January 27th marks the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth. Anyone have plans to celebrate it? If so, how?

Anyone ? You mean apart from the whole of Western Europe? This is Mozart Year, never mind just January 27th, and looks to be inescapable .

Not a huge Mozart fan, Fred?

JR, I am tuning my pianoforte even as we speak.

DG, if true to the letter, you ought to be tuning your fortepiano instead! (qv)
Whilst on this subject I am sure to ruffle a few feathers now...

I can well understand a serious musician wishing to play on a period instrument in order to experience how the music composed for it sounded and felt at the time. Such sorties uncover all kinds of nuances and delicacies which can be overlooked when interpreting on powerful, modern instruments. Sustain, ornamentation, articulation etc. are perceived differently on the lighter, more fragile instruments of the time when the composition was born, and misconceptions and preconceptions can thus be discarded and removed at source. I would urge every serious musician who wishes to perform music from an earlier era to spend a fair amount of time on the instrument for which it was conceived, whenever this can be done. Obviously this is not always possible.

And then go and practise, play and record it on the best modern instrument available!!! I hate having to listen to Mozart, Haydn and particularly Beethoven, of course, on the plinky-plonky fortepianos which those composers had around them. The sound is (relatively) awful, the sustain dreadful, the tuning dangerously unreliable. Beethoven was forever berating his piano manufacturer to build him stronger, louder, bigger pianos. Does anyone seriously think that he would rather hear, say, his Appassionata sonata on a harpsichord than on a modern Steinway Model D? Why does anyone think that instruments have advanced so much? Because even at the time those instruments were known by the finest musicians to be inadequate for the music being composed for them.

Very few people in 1920, offered the choice of a 2006 Porsche would have turned it down in favour of the available cars at the time. Certainly not the best drivers at that time, driving professionally all day long. Do me a favour.

My piano professor at college in the 60's, Malcolm Binns, a true gentleman, superb pianist & marvellous all-round musician was the first person to record all of the Beethoven sonatas onto disc, using period instruments. Sadly, my question is, "Why???"

Having thoroughly acquainted one's self with the sound and feel of the music on the instrument of the time, take all of the information acquired from the invaluable experience and apply it to the instrument for which that composer would have killed, given half a chance.

And I apply that philosophy to all instruments, through Renaissance, Baroque and early 19th century music. Any takers?...

By the way, the year 2009 will see the 200th anniversary of the death of the composer whom Mozart felt to be his equal, perhaps even his superior, Franz Joseph Haydn. Just watch the record companies' marketing when they catch onto the fact that there is a potential fortune to be made from this outstanding genius's works. No other great composer has written such a monumental stack of masterpieces, and yet been so relatively ignored...watch this space!...
PS Haydn lived more than twice as long as Mozart and wrote three times the number of piano sonatas. Many of them are better than most of Mozart's jewels in that form, none the less!

-To actually answer your question, JR (sorry it has taken some little time!... ...) with an extra large malt, of course, perhaps whilst listening to the supernaturally and unbearably beautiful music where the Count begs the Countess for forgiveness at the end of 'Figaro'...
I see that I am 40 posts away from my 3,000th. I wonder when that will be? I never noticed my 1,000 or 2,000th...someone prompt me when it is due, I will try to say something profound (well, we can dream, can't we?... ...)

"...someone prompt me when it is due, I will try to say something profound..."


"It can't end like this. Tell them I said something." - José Doroteo Arango Arámbula (aka Francisco "Pancho" Villa), Mexican bandit and revolutionary, as he died from bullet wounds. He was assassinated on July 20, 1923.

quote:

And I apply that philosophy to all instruments, through Renaissance, Baroque and early 19th century music. Any takers?...

Nothing like opening up a Pandora's Box, eh Ritz? Well, if asked whether I'd prefer to hear Bach played by the Academy of Ancient Music or in one of Stokowski's arrangements by the Philadelphia Orchestra, I'm afraid I'd have to go with the former. I really do prefer Dowland on the lute or Vivaldi on the mandolin, than on the guitar. And yes, Telemann on the recorder than the flute or oboe. And yes, give me a counter-tenor over an alto in Messiah.

Yes, I love the 'Pandora's Box' syndrome!
Now, let's not be too silly, JR! I, also, do not like massive 'romantic' reworkings and overblown orchestras which thicken the texture so completely that the counterpoint is all but lost, so yes, we are agreed about Stokowski/Academy of Ancient Music.
On balance, but the scales are far more evenly matched here, I just about go with you in your Dowland/lute - Vivaldi/mandolin argument. (I adore Dowland, by the way). OK so far...
Recorder loses every time for me to flute and oboe. Not a fan at all, sorry, but I freely admit that this is purely personal taste. A lady teacher with whom I have worked for 18 years is a stunning flautist and flute teacher. She absolutely loves recorder, so we amicably disagree on that one.
Not a fan of countertenors, JR. I go with the altos (well, I would if Mrs Ritzmar would permit it)...

quote:

I go with the altos

I went with one decades ago. Wonderful breath control

Fröhliche Gebürtstag, Wolfgang.