When I first heard Josef Novotny’s Linzer Simphony, I was not sure whether the gradual crumbling of the music familiar to me was due to a faulty recording or to the composer’s intention. It was as if Tom and Jerry had got into the piano and were playing the most mischievous pranks.
As soon as you get used to it, you find music that continually switches between well known melodies and varying degrees of irritation.
Perhaps the music consists of mistakes that are – or so it seems to me at least – precisely and intentionally planted. In any case, it is enjoyable, it gets on your nerves and it makes you laugh. A Laurel und Hardy Film as music: kidding and teasing, it stands on the brink of an abyss and experiences its own catastrophe, transience, disintegration and human futility.
Franzobel
On his return journey from Salzburg to Vienna at the end of October 1783, Mozart and his wife stayed with the old Count of Thun in Linz.
‘… On Tuesday 4 November, I’ll perform a concert here in the theatre. Since I don’t have a single symphony with me, I’ll have to write one helter-skelter in order to be ready by then …’ (31 October 1783).
Thus, we learn from Mozart himself that the Linzer Symphony was composed, transcribed (for two violins, viola, double bass, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets and tympani), rehearsed and performed for the first time in under a week!
Normally, a version for piano would immediately be transcribed from the orchestra arrangement since recording equipment had not yet been invented. In this way, music-hungry performers and audiences could experience – in small groups – the passion, wit, temperament and gusto of Mozart’s music and also its warmth and tenderness in live piano recital. For this production, a version for piano – quasi distilled from the orchestral sound – made by Keith Hill (after Bartolomeo Cristofori) has been recorded from a Fortepiano performance.
AH
The electronic interpretation of Mozart’s composition is in no way meant to be a deconstruction of the work. The essential idea was rather to interpret it on another level where instruments of our century could provide contemporary emotional and structural substance.
There are several phases. First, a digital environment was created, allowing an improvising and intuitive approach to the piece in order to present a live performance situation where piano and electronics can be genuine duo partners. This second, electronic, part of the duo was recorded, edited and mixed with the original piano recording in order to develop something new from the blending of two works separated by over 200 years.
JN
Tracklisting:
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