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The Viennese fortepiano of the late 18th century
Unlike Wanda Landowska's pioneering of little-known music on the neglected harpsichord, the revival of the forlepiano teems likely to establish itself in a revitalizing of the traditional keyboard repertoire of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and even Schumann. Malcolm Bilson, as a professor of music at Cornell University and also as the keyboard member of the Amade Trio, is a well-known exponent of this repertoire and an enthusiastic advocate of the fortepiano's independence. Here he introduces certain aspects of the Viennese classics he has performed which reveal the fortepiano as a typical and eloquent voice of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period which saw the emergence of new and distinct schools of keyboard instruments such as the 'Viennese' itself and the 'English'.