Fortepiano
Music in Paris at the time of Mozart
(Johann Schobert, J. Fr. Edelmann, J. G. Eckard)
Petri Tapio Mattson – violin (Finland)
Miklós Spányi – pianoforte (Finland / Hungary)
Tuesday 18 July 2006, 7.30 pm
Collegium Marianum, Baroque Library Hall, Melantrichova 19, Praha 1
The opening concert of the festival was dedicated to the instrument among whose great promoters belonged also Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. During his lifetime, the pianoforte was still a novelty. The Baroque knew its predecessor, the harpsichord with plucking mechanics. However, the strings of the piano are played with hammers, smaller in the case of the first types of the instrument than with modern pianos. The programme of the concert included sonatas for violin and pianoforte not only by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but also by some of his contemporaries and countrymen who played an important role in introducing the pianoforte into the salons of Paris. Compared to Vienna, Paris was so behind the times in the reception of the new instrument that during his sojourns in Paris in the 1860s and 70s, Mozart had to dedicate his “piano” sonatas to the harpsichord.
