2023 Summer Academy
In July 2023, six young players from around the world joined us around six historical keyboards: three clavichords in Saxon style (by Joris Potvlieghe) and three Stein fortepianos (by Chris Maene). Bach’s opus served as our reference and inspiration as they explored the practice of varying repeats in Mozart’s six sonatas K. 279–84. Having written these in Munich during the winter of 1774–75, Mozart brought them along as a portfolio on his trip back to Munich, Augsburg, and Mannheim during the fall and winter of 1777–78.
Why these sonatas? Because Leopold Mozart may have had them in mind when on October 7, 1775 he wrote to Breitkopf, the “famous book merchant in Leipzig” and asked the latter whether he might wish to print an opus of keyboard sonatas “in the same manner as those of Mr. Philipp Carl Emanuel Bach with varied reprises” (emphasis by L. Mozart). The publication did not happen—but what if it had?
Why these instruments? Because they represent the tactile and sonic space for invention and delivery that may be associated with these two opuses of six keyboard sonatas. Upon meeting the instrument builder Stein, Mozart enthusiastically tells his father on October 17, 1777, that “the last sonata ex D [K. 284] works incomparably well on the Stein pianofortes.” Bach’s self-identification with the clavichord is well known, but on his trip, Mozart also encountered many clavichords, happily performing his sonatas (“all six of them”) “quite often and by heart.”
The assignment for each workshop participant was twofold: first, to engage in a practice of embellishment and variation, and second, to prepare “their” Mozart sonata for a video recording at the end of the workshop.
We are pleased to publish the results, along with a filmed documentary. Enjoy!