Das Klavier, part 1. From: Mozart. Sein Charakter, sein Werk, by Alfred Einstein. (p. 275-291.) (Zürich, Stuttgart 31953, S. 275-291. Permalink: www.zeno.org. Lizenz: Verwaist. Kategorien: Musik.)
Mozart. The Piano.
We know Mozart was a great pianist, one of the greatest virtuosos of his time. He was not, however, a virtuoso like those of the generation that followed him. His experience of this next group, of its beginning as with Clementi, was one of rejection; and the judgement offered about Clementi was particularly harsh. Mozart engaged in a sort of competition with him before the Emperor (Joseph), at the end of 1781 or beginning of 1782. Writing on January 16, 1782, we find the following: “… this fellow is an upstanding cembalist. – with this, all has been said. — he has great facility in the right hand. – his main passages are those in thirds. – and to this, it must be said he has no taste or sensitivity. – just a technician [Mechanicus]…”
Yet Clementi was far more than a mere technician, and in many essential ways a model for an entire generation of pianists, and for composers of piano music. Beethoven is an example. Mozart would have offered the same judgment, we expect, if Beethoven played one of his sonatas à la Clementi for him – for example the C major Sonata op.2, no.3; which he might have done, in the famous short meeting of 1787. Perhaps he would not have granted Beethoven taste or sensitivity either. Mozart’s keyboard music ideal was rather different, compared to the beginning of the 19th century.
To this we add, however, Mozart was not writing for a different instrument than Beethoven, Weber, or Chopin; not for the clavichord or cembalo. He wrote for our pianoforte, for the same instrument type, if not one as powerful as an Erard, or Steinway. For works actually conceived for cembalo, we could, at most, look to the early concert arrangements modeled after J.C. Bach, and the smaller French masters: K. 37, 39, 40, 41, and 107. One should not be led from this view, even though Mozart still marked the piano part of later works “cembalo”; or by an instance of a great (or minor) cembalo performer, using her instrument to make the Rondo all turca (from the A major piano sonata) a resounding triumph.
In the Mozart home there were pianos made by Franz Joseph Spaeth, of Augsburg. Yet as Mozart became acquainted with the instruments of the Augsburg master Johann Andreas Stein, these were his favorite. Stein was (later) the father-in-law and instructor of Johann Andreas Streicher, who worked for Beethoven. [Mozart’s description of Stein’s piano is omitted here.] [ … ] This was the sort of instrument Mozart wrote his sonatas, variations, fantasies, and concertos for.
To gauge Mozart’s achievement for the piano, one must remember it was in some cases a true virtuoso’s instrument; yet in general an instrument for dilettantes. The 18th century expression was amateur [“Liebhaber”]. This deeply influenced the character of the music written for the piano.
A work for piano, or an ensemble with piano, was in general not taken as seriously as a string quartet, or quintet; which were performed by career musicians or a more masculine amateur group. A string quartet or quintet had four movements, a piano sonata three at most. A quartet is for “connoisseurs” [Kenner]; a piano sonata, sonata for piano and violin, a piano trio or quartet – for amateurs/enthusiasts, men or women.
For piano and violin, not violin and piano – because the strange and noteworthy feature, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, is that the piano always dominated the ensemble. This also determined the lighter character of these forms. This shows, from about 1750, a complete role reversal for the keyboard. In an earlier [altklassischen] composition, as with a “solo sonata” for violin and cembalo, the violin “said nearly everything”. It was treated, at times, polyphonically; the cembalo, given little: providing the bass, the support and accompaniment.
After 1750, on the contrary, the keyboard had everything to say. The violin part was so meaningless, so “ad libitum” in its treatment, it might often be omitted without real harm. Thus before 1750 the violin sonata with basso-continuo ruled. After 1750, we have piano sonatas with an accompanying violin. It took some time before the violin was treated as important [“obligat”], so necessary for both instruments, that we would have the sonata for violin and piano associated with Beethoven. Mozart was in the forefront of this change. He restored equilibrium between the instruments, by developing the form through musical dialog.
Mozart and Beethoven were great piano performers, and great composers for their instrument. At first, however, the central place of the piano for Mozart was not as strong as with Beethoven, whose printed works op. 1, 2, 5-7, 10-17, and 19 were all for the piano. For Mozart it was, at least in a temporary sense, not necessary to write down piano sonatas or variations. He improvised them as needed. The variations K.24 and 25, printed in The Hague in early 1766, are simply published documents of the Wunderkind’s improvisations. A few sonatas published a short time later (and in his sister’s keeping) were lost. The works written down, because they needed to be, were those for four hands: Sonatas K. 19d (1765), K. 381 (1772), and K. 358 (1774). All three were for performance by Mozart and his sister, as shown in the family portrait of 1778. A few sets of variations were also written out, partly as needed for students, or as works easier to publish and sell. Writing down piano sonatas began in the summer of 1774. Mozart was 19, with the prospect of starting composition on the “Finta giardiniera” in Munich.
[To be continued.]
Translation by Edward Eggleston.
