Chopin First Editions Online

F. Chopin Preludes for Piano Opus 28 (1839)

I came across this outstanding web resource tonight: the Chopin Early Editions collection of digitized facsimiles put out by the University of Chicago. Here is the link

http://chopin.lib.uchicago.edu/

Carl Reinecke Playing the Larghetto from Mozart's Coronation Concerto

One of the most significant historical recordings is surely this Welte-Mignon piano roll recorded by the 80-year-old Carl Reinecke in January, 1905. Reinecke is thus probably the oldest instrumentalist on record. With a 35-year tenure as conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Reinecke occupied a central position in German musical life in the second half of the 19th century.

Reinecke is today best known for his compositions, but in his own day he was appreciated as a connoiseur of Mozart's music. Here Reinecke with his own transcription of the Larghetto from Mozart's Piano Concerto in D Major, KV 537.

Download link:

http://www.divshare.com/download/3870989-655

Haydn on a 1798 Broadwood

In February 2007 I played a fortepiano recital entitled Haydn in London at the Neumeyer-Junghanns-Tracy Collection of Historical Keyboard Instruments in Bad Krozingen, near Freiburg. I used several instruments, among them a fine Broadwood from 1798.

Here the encore, an Adagio by Haydn:

Feb. 23: G. F. Händel's Birthday!

In honor of Händel, here the Prelude to the E-Major Suite, recorded in Aachen in Nov. 2005.

Händel: Suite in F Major, Adagio

Here the opening Adagio of Händel's F-Major Suite, performed on my fortepiano after Cristofori. Händel is known to have had regular access to a Florentine fortepiano at the home of friends of his in London from the 1730's onward.

Francois Couperin: Allemande à 2 Clavecins

Francois Couperin: Allemande for Two Harpsichords

in a concert from 13 February 2008 at the Musikhochschule Freiburg, performed with my post-graduate harpsichord student Yeon Jeong Jeong as part of her final recital program.

Instruments: two Taskin-model harpsichords by Keith Hill, 1993 & 1998

Mozart versus Clementi

is the title of a fortepiano recital program I performed at the Musikhochschule Freiburg on 28 January 2008. On Dec. 24, 1781, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Muzio Clementi performed in a competition with each other at the court in Vienna, by command of the emperor. This program is a reconstruction of a "virtual" competition between the two composer-pianists, in order to directly compare them as pianists and as piano composers.

The opening piece on my recital was Clementi's Sonata in B-flat Major, Opus 47, Nr. 2, which he performed during the competition before the emperor.

Fortepiano: Keith Hill, 1998 after Anton Walther (Vienna, ca. 1795)

M. Clementi: Sonata in B-flat Major Opus 47, Nr. 2 (1781): Allegro con brio


M. Clementi: Sonata in B-flat Major Opus 47, Nr. 2 (1781): Andante quasi Allegretto



M. Clementi: Sonata in B-flat Major Opus 47, Nr. 2 (1781): Rondo Assai Allegro

Mozart Sonata in C Major KV 330

As the second work in the Mozart versus Clementi program from 28 January 2008, I played Mozart's C-Major Sonata KV 330:

Allegro moderato



Andante cantabile


Allegretto