Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Christopher Hogwood :: The Secret Mozart: Works for Clavichord - Christopher Hogwood

The Intimate Mozart

Issaquahzimodo | Seattle, WA United States | 11/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not sure there is anything "secretive" about the music on this album. But if you can get past the foolish title, it is something of a revelation to hear Mozart's keyboard music played on the clavichord. The album notes state that the clavichord was considered the most expressive and was Mozart's personal "first choice" among the keyboard instuments. However, the clavichord was (and still is) rarely heard in public performance because it does not produce enough sound to be heard in ensemble or even by itself in a large room. The music on this CD makes a compelling case."

SPIRITUAL VALUES

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 01/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At long last my collection owns a clavichord recital - John McCabe's interesting disc `Howells' Clavichord' turned out, on closer inspection following purchase, to be something else. The `problem' with the clavichord is that it does not have a big voice; indeed a small clavichord can hardly be heard at the other end of any but a small room. However even the smallest can be heard by its player, and one particularly unpretentious specimen was up to the job of test-driving the music of Mozart.



This disc provides an hour and a quarter of music, and three instruments are used. The one from the house of Hass is an early product and is the richest in tone. The Schiedmayer instrument was built in 1791, the year of Mozart's death, and has a brighter sound. The third is Mozart's own clavichord, of unknown manufacture and more meagre in effect than the others, but if it was good enough for him it is more than good enough for me.



What this recital has done is to force me to do in practice what I like to think I do in theory, namely to focus on the pure content of the music, whatever the instrument or instruments involved. I thrill to the Mozart-playing of Serkin or Brendel or Perahia on modern grand pianos, and I admire the sensitivity of Serkin in particular in scaling down his huge touch to a sound appropriate to what he is playing, but a sound, for all that, that is still bigger than any that Mozart ever heard. Mozart on the other hand was glad of all the instrumental tone he could get when giving his works to his public, but when he was alone with his muse a small clavichord was enough. The specifics of the instrument, it seems to me, are only a kind of clothing or lighting in which the music is presented. It may be more, or less, appropriate in each case - for instance Mozart's spine-tingling Adagio for Glass Harmonica is obviously inspired by the ethereal sound of that instrument and could not be convincingly rendered by even the finest brass band. However the glass harmonica is still there for the piece, not the other way about, and you will hear it very effectively performed here by Hogwood on Mozart's own little clavichord. Coming in from the opposite angle, I hear from Hogwood a very dramatic and imposing crescendo in the D minor Fantasia. If I had been so foolish as to play it back-to-back with a piano rendition either I would not have found it so effective or I would have found the piano performance noisy and coarse. The lesson I draw is clear - the specifics of the sound in terms of volume, tone and scale are secondary. What is essential is the thing that is of the spirit, the music `itself'.



I found this recital completely riveting - after all this is how Mozart's music would have sounded to Mozart. In case Hogwood needs any introduction, he is a musical scholar as well as performer of the highest eminence, and a leader of the drive, 30-40 years ago, towards `authenticity' in performing early music. The agenda of the recital is imaginative, and there are several pieces included that I may not have heard previously. Particularly welcome are two items, the longest in the programme, for 4 hands in which Hogwood is partnered by the clavichord specialist Derek Adlam. These are given (naturally) on the two bigger instruments, and they have a rich and agreeable sound that should do a lot to convert any waverers to this beautiful instrument of music.



Really, I can't recommend this set highly enough. The recording is admirable, and I played the disc at the same volume-setting that I use for classical chamber music, or piano recitals, or Brahms symphonies, or for that matter Mahler's 8th or The Dream of Gerontius. The liner note is likewise admirable, telling us adequately and without verbiage what we need to know about the music, the performers and the instruments. If you choose to take my word for all this and join me in an unfamiliar but particularly beautiful sound-world, then welcome."

What a wonderful view of this music

Craig Matteson | Ann Arbor, MI | 01/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Through the eighteenth century, the clavichord was a highly favored instrument for personal music making. Musicians loved it because they could play with dynamics (shades of soft to loud) and even voice chords (play each note in the chord with varying amounts of strength to "color" the chord). While the harpsichord was a louder instrument and more suitable for public performance, the strings were plucked and there was no way to play with different dynamics. The artist could change the effects to give the illusion of dynamics, but it was a psychological manipulation. With the clavichord, the force of pressure on the key directly levered the tangent into the string with that same force and that created the dynamic. Musicians treasured its subtlety and responsiveness to even the softest breath of a note.



A unique effect of the clavichord over the harpsichord and the piano is that the tangent is also the device that keeps the string above the dampening material and allows it to continue to sound. This means the artist is still in contact with the string so there is a possibility of altering the effects of the note by continuing to manipulate the key. The Germans called this bebung and the effect was treated as an ornament.



Christopher Hogwood has previously released recordings of music by Bach and Handel on the clavichord. Each of these is called "The Secret ..." because it represents private and personal music making in one's home. This wonderful disk presents music by Mozart, which is particularly nice because we associate his music so much with the piano (though his piano was vastly different than the usual iron framed, long ringing piano we play on today). As the notes for this disk tell us, Mozart's widow referred to their personal clavichord as the instrument Mozart played in composing "The Magic Flue" and other compositions late in life.



This disk presents 23 tracks using three different clavichords. All of the clavichords are unfretted. A fretted clavichord uses fewer strings than keys because the string only sounds from the one end to the tangent. So, if you have, say, a `c' and a c-sharp that are not going to be sounded together, you could use the same string for both notes by striking the string in the right spot to produce the different notes. However, these three clavichords have a string for each key and are therefore "unfretted".



The Hass harpsichord from 1761 has a second set of strings for the lowest octave and a half that add resonance that you will not hear in the other two clavichords. Some people, including CPE Bach, found the sudden transition of voicing undesirable, others find it adding richness and brilliance. You can hear this instrument on tracks 1-9, especially in the set of variations in G, K. 501.



We also get to hear the actual clavichord Mozart owned and the one mentioned by his widow as the one Mozart used in composing, on tracks 10-15 including the adagio for Glass Harmonica K. 356 and the Rondo in F, K. 494. It is a simple instrument with more historic value than beauty of sound.



The last instrument is the Schiedmayer and it has a clear and appealing sound. It is used on the remainder of the tracks (16-23). We hear two versions of the famous Fantasia in d-minor K 397; one with an improvised (well, at least improvisational sounding) ending, and the other the way we all learned it. The Sonata in D, K. 381 is also a gem and provides a wonderful fresh view of the work for those so familiar with how it sounds on our modern pianos or even a period fortepiano.



All of the numbers are well played by Christopher Hogwood except the K. 501 variations (tracks 2-7) and the K. 381 Sonata in D, which are played by Derek Adlam, whose performing is quite admirable.



A gem of a disk and a treasure for anyone who cares to hear Mozart in a way that would have not only been familiar to Mozart, but to all those alive when his music was new.



Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

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