Mozart at the keyboard

No. 343 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast343

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This weeks’ new montage ushers in a new set of Mozart shares that are on our plan between now and the end of this year. Most of them will be on Tuesdays, but this one on Mozart keyboard works is part of our Friday series.

There are two logical parts to this week’s montage – the first part proposes five sets of keyboard variations on various themes inspired by works of the day by a number of composers. Walter Gieseking performs all these tracks, taken from vintage mono recordings.

The latter half of the montage is dedicated to Mozart’s K. 107, which presents three keyboard concerti based on sonatas by Johann Christian Bach.

Mozart’s early concerti were studies based on sonatas by (among others) CPE Bach and Leontzi Honauer, so the set in K. 107 follows more that study pattern. Starting from the fifth concerto however, Mozart composes novel material. According to Mozart’s catalogue of piano concerti, these were published somewhere between his fourth (1767) and fifth (1773) “numbered” concerti. The performances on the montage are part of a set we sampled earlier on our Friday series, from early keyboard specialist Viviana Sofronitsky.

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