Program

Moderator: Dr. Michael Tsalka

10:00
Registration opens

After the Symposium

Abstracts: 

A. Tom Bouwman:
Mozarts late piano works: a case for Stein

The instruments of the Augsburg builder Johann André (Andreas) Stein where much favored by Mozart. In his oft-quoted letter from 1777, Mozart describes the pianofortes by Stein in great detail and expresses his enthusiasm about their construction and sound quality. Yet, shortly after moving to Vienna in 1781, Mozart bought his own piano from the local builder Gabriel Anton Walter. How this decision has influenced fortepianists in their choice of instruments when performing and recording Mozarts piano-works is obvious from the discography. In the literature on the subject the instruments of Walter are often readily put forward as ‘the most suitable’ for Mozarts later piano works. This lecture not only tries to illuminate the incorrectness of this assumption, but also offers a wider and more pragmatical view on the subject of choosing the ‘right’ piano for Mozart.

Tom Bouwman is a Dutch fortepianist and Mozart-scholar. He regularly performs with Mozart’s work on historical keyboard instruments and his lectures tend to focus on the more hidden aspects of the composers life and work. In 2019 several of his completed Mozart-fragments will appear in print. Together with cultural theologian Frank Bosman he is currently working on a new book about the composers religious views and the theological aspects of Mozart’s legacy.

B. Diana Weston: Keeping the Tempo

Dance and dance music became formalised in the seventeenth century in the reign of Louis XIV. Its/his influence was enormous. This talk will start with a look at the dance music of this period from the perspective of the continuo and the dance suite, in which it will examine the principles of performance particularly in relation to rhythmic structure. Recognizing that the art of ballet emerged from the dance suite, the talk will then demonstrate through excerpts from Debussy’s short children’s ballet La Boîte àjoujoux, that the same principles apply in this related but different dance-form. And finally, that dance-music from other sources such as the quintessential twentieth century dance, the tango, is served equally well with an understanding of these principles.

Program/Musical Examples

• Jacques Hotteterre (1674-1763) Suite in D Op.11 No. 1 (continuo part) – (fortepiano)
• Allemande La Royalle; Rondeau Le Duc D’Orleans; Sarabande La d’Armagnac; Gavotte La Meudon; Menuet Le Comte de Brione; Gigue La Folichon
• Claude Debussy (1862-1918) – excerpts from La Boîte à joujoux(Collard & Collard)
• Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) -Fuga y misterio (fortepiano x2)

C. Monika Lustig

I am the curator of the musical instrument collection in Kloster Michaelstein – music academy for performance practice and education. In our collection there is a pianino made by the dutch piano maker Petrus de Ruijter (Breda, mid 19th century) for the special use in ships (in German called “Schiffsklavier). For this special use this instrument shows some characteristic features. For example, it is very small, has a hinged manual and a carrying handle. Such pianos are very rare.
I would like to ask you if a view on such instrument could be of interest for your symposium (for a poster presentation) because of its rarity and as an example of piano making in the Netherlands.

D. Olaf van Hees
Original Condition ?

Frequently, square pianos are announced to be for sale in “Original condition”, “Concert ready”, or “Only needs tuning”. While the last two qualifications are just ridiculous, the first one is disputable.
It is undeniable that the square piano in the past had a bad name, mostly due to bad restoration, but was gaining some respect the last 10-15 years. But now again it is beginning to look like a rather dubious second hand car business, with an overestimation of the “Original Condition”. Still there is a lot of confusion between “restoration”, “conservation”, and “concert ready”. The last seems to be a contradiction to the first two.
The target of this short presentation is to make us aware of the sheer conflicting terms and targets, and sometimes commercial abuse of these subjects.

Em. Prof. Dr. Olaf S. van Hees started his professional life as an officer of the Royal Field Artillery, studied Medicin and specialized in occupational diseases (with special interest in the fields of music, theatre, museums and restoration) and Forensic Pathology. In between he was a sky diver and a historical cavalry stuntman. After early retirement he turned his hobby into his profession of restoration of pianofortes and harpsichords and specialized in the (Dutch) square piano. In this world he is considered as an authority.

Further abstracts will follow soon.