MOZARTIANA

RARITIES AND ARRANGEMENTS PERFORMED ON HISTORICAL KEYBOARDS

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MICHAEL TSALKA

‘Mozartiana is a compilation of W.A. Mozart’s complete and incomplete compositions interpreted on two extremely rare historical instruments, the tangentenflügel and the pantalon. The project came about in early 2018 when my dear friend Pooya Radbon contacted me after restoring a Berner Tangentenflügel (late eighteenth century) and a Maucher Pantalon (c. 1780). He asked if I would consider making a recording on them, and our conversation centred on rare arrangements of Mozart’s incomplete works, such as Franz Beyer’s 1995 completion and piano arrangement of Mozart’s ballet-pantomime Pantalon und Colombine, K. 446-Fs (tracks 2-14), in which he played Harlequin during the carnival season of 1783.

These scores demand from us as interpreters not only technical mastery and reverence for the stylistic practices of the past, but also an active imagination and bold interpretation. It is my conviction that Mozart would have been happy to listen these piano arrangements on two marvelous and original historic instruments, restored and revived almost 230 years after his death.’ – Michael Tsalka