This weekend, Ojai’s innovative chamber music organization Chamber on the Mountain offers a concert that will expand our knowledge of the musical environment of the Hapsburg Empire in the Eighteenth Century, while it delights our senses with immortal music.
The young Viennese virtuoso Daniel Adam Maltz will perform a program of works by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven on an early version of the piano known as the “Fortepiano,” 3 p.m. Sunday, June 16, in Logan House at Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Road, Ojai.
Maltz will play Wolfgang Mozart‘s “Rondo in a-minor, K. 511” (1787) and his “Sonata in F-Major, K. 533/494” (1788); Franz Josef Haydn‘s “Sonata in A-Major, Hob. XVI:30” (1774-76), and “Sonata in D-Major, Hob. XVI:37” (1780); and Ludwig Beethoven‘s “Andante ‘favori’ WoO 57” (1805).
Music is the only reliable time machine we have, and the use of the fortepiano for this recital pinpoints, not only the time and place of the composition, but how the work sounded to its original audience.
The primary difference between the harpsichord and the piano (invented in 1698 by the harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori, who worked for the Medici family of Florence, is that when you press a harpsichord key, the lever action ends by plucking a string; whereas pressing a piano key causes a felt- or leather-covered hammer to strike the string.
Another major difference, stemming from the first, is that harpsichords emit notes of a fixed, virtually unadjustable volume, whereas even the earliest pianos were capable of producing a wide range of volume, from soft to loud—hence the names “pianoforte” (the full name of the modern piano) and “fortepiano” (as the earlier versions are now called), which are Italian for “soft-loud” (pianoforte) and “loud-soft” (fortepiano).
According to Wikipedia: “The fortepiano has leather-covered hammers and thin, harpsichord-like strings. It has a much lighter case construction than the modern piano and, except for later examples of the early nineteenth century (already evolving towards the modern piano), it has no metal frame or bracing. The action and hammers are lighter, giving rise to a much lighter touch, which in well-constructed fortepianos is also very expressive.
“The range of the fortepiano was about four octaves at the time of its invention and gradually increased. Mozart wrote his piano music for instruments of about five octaves. The piano works of Beethoven reflect a gradually expanding range; his last piano compositions are for an instrument of about six and a half octaves. The range of most modern pianos, attained in the 19th century, is 7⅓ octaves.
“Fortepianos from the start often had devices similar to the pedals of modern pianos, but they were not always pedals; sometimes hand stops or knee levers were used instead.
“Like the modern piano, the fortepiano can vary the sound volume of each note, depending on the player’s touch. The tone of the fortepiano is quite different from that of the modern piano, however, being softer, with less sustain. Sforzando accents tend to stand out more than on the modern piano, because they differ from softer notes in timbre as well as volume, and decay rapidly.
“Fortepianos also tend to have quite different tone quality in their different registers – slightly buzzing in the bass, ‘tinkling’ in the high treble, and more rounded (closest to the modern piano) in the mid range. In comparison, modern pianos are rather more uniform in tone through their range.”
Daniel Adam Maltz plays a “Viennese Fortepiano” very like the ones played by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, and the ones for which they wrote the works on this program.
Maltz’s performance is underwritten, in part, by the Monimos Foundation.
Tickets to this concert are $35, and can be purchased online at http://www.chamberonthemountain.com/tickets.html or, if it is not sold out, at the door.