W.A Mozart, Sonata in C minor K457, 1. Allegro Molto. Lucas Blondeel, fortepiano

The fortepiano is a modern copy after Johann Andreas Stein, around 1780.
Video by Jan Holger Hennies, May 2020

[@ovidiualexandrudima]

Beautiful! And also beautiful instrument and location!

[@pianomarianopiano]

What a contrast that instrument and that e-reader ! 😁

[@jusu8961]

i keep coming back to the video again and again. i dont know why, but i love it

[@Rasmus_Schweden]

Super gespielt danke für dein kleines Konzert ich könnte stundenlang zuhören. Die modernen Klaviere sind mir dafür zu hoch gestimmt. Rasmus aus Schweden Schriftsteller 🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🎹

[@sadskyggen]

This is so 18 century that I need a wig to fully enjoyed

[@martinyoung99]

lol

[@GrotrianSeiler]

This music needs to be played on these instruments more often.

[@badsoundingpiano430]

Just by listening you can immediately get a sense of the social function the music would have played in those days versus how and where it gets played today. I can imagine a small gathering of my friends or acquaintances or even a small private concert in my own home (and make some money on the side). I could even enjoy to music without fear of being shushed or being told to be quiet by other people in a big quiet concert hall, and that has happened to me more times than I would like. Mozart's piano music, even his piano concertos, weren't designed for the big and large concert venues of today. Part of the reason I don't go to concerts is because they are not very entertaining and there isn't much room to enjoy the music in the moment and have a fun time except at "acceptable moments for applause".

[@badsoundingpiano430]

The playing on these pianos is also clearly different from the grand Steinways and I never really did like those instruments and never felt the music sounded that great on them either. Here, I hear something more rhythmically exciting and a little less "pretty".

[@rodstartube]

stick plastic papers on the piano hammers and you get that sound.

[@badsoundingpiano430]

@@rodstartube I just may try that and see how it sounds on mine.

[@supermariozaken]

@@rodstartube Not even close

[@pedroruiz193]

I wanted to listen to Mozart's music. I stayed for the haircut.

[@GiacomoPhilipp92]

Danke! Hat mir sehr gefallen, Ihre Interpretation. Mir scheint insbesondere das Tempo auf den Punkt getroffen.

[@luuktorn]

Wow! What a beautiful instrument! Very musically played. Nice background too :)

[@theophilos0910]

The ‘opening motif-theme’ of K. 457 (Sept 1784) may well have been given to Sebastian Bach in Berlin years before but it probably came to Mozart via Baron van Swieten during one of his Sunday morning musical soirées beginning at 10am since it was the Baron himself who studied as many of the works of Handel & the Bach family composers that he could lay his hands on to add to his vast musical library - M. himself embarked on at least a dozen ‘minor key’ works once he recovered from his near death experience (30 Aug to 3 Sept 1784) from renal failure following a streptococcal infection which re-ignited his latent Rheumatic fever swelling of hands-arms & feet making it nearly impossible to move in bed… These ‘sketch drafts in minor keys’ were drafted between 22 September & 31 December 1785 - most were completed up to a year or more later after sitting in his stand-up writing table waiting for the opportunity to complete them - a very common praxis among composers and something he continued to do throughout his life - generally the opening 120 bars or so (which Alan Tyson’s datable paper type anslyses based on ‘watermarks’ proved) such as the opening movement to K. 449 which was begun in 1782 (‘the Bach year’) but not completed until Feb 1784 … and explains the existence of over 300 of these ‘zettlschen mit Musik’ left at his death …

[@willemkrugel6916]

Bravo, bravo. Loved it😀

[@carlosvazquez7697]

Masterfully played.

[@andreassitompul7217]

I got a CD from Mozarthaus in Salzburg, i bought back in 2018.. it's this piece played on Mozart's real pianoforte.. i used to listen to Yngwie n neoclassical metal.. so.. this piece kinda stuck on ear e little.. that minor intro swiftly playing on major motives, than back again.. and a little rest along the way.. this is beautiful.. thx maestro.. cheers from Indonesia 🇲🇨🇲🇨

[@magdalenabakharpsichord]

Bravo 👏👏👏 beautiful instrument and one of my favourite sonatas 😊

[@TGarzarel]

Wow! I never knew of, or noticed that connection between those two pieces. Thank you Lucas! Never heard the part from 6:17-6:34...

[@blondeeliade]

Hi! Thanks a lot. That part is a little improvised cadenza before the recapitulation :)

[@lochlanfitzgerald7719]

@@blondeeliade sounded like the theme from Bach’s ‘Musical Offering Ricercar 6’ theme. Amazing!

[@777rogerf]

Mozart sounds so much better on this modern copy of a period-correct fortepiano that fortepianos of this type should start replacing the big modern grand pianos for all recordings and many live performances (depending on the venue) of Mozart and other composers of his time and earlier.

[@leongarcia3462]

Oh bello forte e piano

[@ekaterina7023]

Interesting piano and sound

[@albertoblazquez1968]

Very nice!! I love it.

[@steadyeddie3251]

I have always loved both the c minor sonata and das musikalische opfer and never knew the corolation between them. thank you very much for this (:

[@celoratz]

Awesome!

[@ootamanabu6254]

自宅にpianoforteがあるとは、凄い！！！！家も綺麗。 House is good and yr pianoforte is too. Perform is superb !!!!!

[@frandanco6289]

I just found your video tonight ! Yes, It is 3 years hence... :) So Beautifully played, Lucas Blondeel !!! You are so learned and talented !!! Thank you so much for this - I loved it !!!!! Best, Fran Danco

[@StephenBryen]

it must have been amazing to be in the home of Gottfried Freiherr van Swieten and attending was Haydn and Mozart, among others, studying Handel and Bach. Wow!

[@ewhyte8059]

So true. So true. What an amalgamation of connoisseurs perusing connoisseurs!

[@benjaminniemczyk]

Wonderful!

[@cosainsegnarealmentelatorr4532]

Bello! Molto bello grazie!

[@konst1887]

Nice introduction and plying!

[@ritschardt]

Nice to hear a good copy of a Stein piano by a lesser known maker.

[@xmagister]

Bach is the origin, but .. (Fantasia in C min. 1784; Sonata in C min. 1785; Don Giovanni 1787). The basis of the theme of the Fantasia is the chromatic descent of the bass every 2 bars. The theme of the sonata in C minor. (on the chord in C minor) is the same used in Don Giovanni, duel (the chromatic descent is the basis of the theme in D minor) and death of the Commendatore (at the end of the trio). I think it's very important for tempo andthe phrasing. ;-) ..A subtle "fil rouge"

[@Vextrove]

What a revelation!

[@rugbyjefe710]

Bravo! Thanks for the history! Didn’t know it was connected to the piece by Bach!

[@jdreeves5527]

Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata sounds similar as well...The link between the 3 great composers.

[@rodrigogalliano4609]

bravo

[@eduardobarrezueta5247]

Mine name ißt Bach. De acuerdo con la historia contada, Federico NUNCA se lo agradeció.

[@williamnelson792]

Bravo

[@cliveso]

How could you possibly give Bach credit for that theme? He was probably the entire reason why Mozart came across the theme, but the theme was the Prussian king's idea. There was no dialogue between Mozart and Bach in this. Bach was an intermediary.

[@olgasurneva4042]

А мне понравился рояль! Это ж надо перестроиться на другую цветовую гамму!

[@mralcina8726]

perfect tempo for this piece. A lot of recordings are more brisk which i dislike.

[@keysersose996]

Hello Lucas, does your Stein copy have an actual Stein action or a Walter one like the ones Mc Nulty builds ?

[@Pablo_Olais]

¿Quien realizó la copia de este fortepiano?

[@matthiaswulsten3231]

Está Johann Andreas Stein en 1780.

[@matthiaswulsten3231]

Sorry, this was the guy who constructed the original, after whitch the actual instrument was made. But don't know, who made the copy (my spanish to bad for more complex answers ;-( )

[@brianregan5053]

Bach, du lebst noch!

[@robertwatson5852]

What was that button you pushed??

[@blondeeliade]

I pulled it first (a few seconds earlier)! It’s the so called moderator, which shifts a small stripe of cloth between hammer and strings in order to produce a very soft sound. Most Viennese fortepiano had it, but mostly controlled by an extra pedal or knee lever...

[@chrisa7748]

Are you talking to yourself while playing or am I hearing things? 😂 Played amazing btw

[@Ekvitarius]

Sounds like Mozart is imitating CPE as well

[@badsoundingpiano430]

That was part of what made Mozart the real deal prodigy. He could take other people's music and easily imitate it yet transform it into his own style and make it sound like himself. He would do the same thing with Haydn too. His theme and variations are also great examples of that. A famous quote goes "good composers borrow, great composers steal." In his day, long before copyright laws even existed, musicians and composers were often using other's ideas.

[@PabloMelendez1969]

Seems a bit fast. I wonder if he tunes the piano himself.

[@mxnxstrandxsx4587]

For me, the first movement must be played more agitated.

[@PabloMelendez1969]

@@mxnxstrandxsx4587 I would disagree. Some people want to play everything Mozart like it's all operatic, a part of a show. You do this with the sonatas and you end up sounding like a wind-up toy. I think much of his chamber music was too be taken home to be lived with. The music was meant to be much more companionable and meditational than we know. We never hear it played like that and it's a shame.

[@mxnxstrandxsx4587]

@@PabloMelendez1969 I’m not talking about anything about playing phrases operatic “here”. I meant about having more directions in each phrases as like talking since this music is written in 18c. I’m not talking about playing those melodies as “bel canto” operatic way today

[@donkgated8074]

@@PabloMelendez1969 LOL if a pianist playing a sonata operatically end up sounding like a wind-up toy, that means the pianist is clueless and incompetent! "The music was meant to be much more companionable and meditational than we know." Cool, I never knew "Molto Allegro" means companionable and meditational! LOL!

[@donkgated8074]

@@mxnxstrandxsx4587 I think we definitely do expect today a faster tempo from Molto Allegro, especially if performed on a modern instrument. However I do enjoy this interpretation very much - I find it tasteful.

[@lotharklein1896]

Der könnte mal zu Friseur wandern, dringends.

[@blindcanseemusic]

I’m actually hearing some beethoven. I know that is impossible. Maybe there is a bit more tutti than im used to with Mozart.

[@badsoundingpiano430]

I believe that sometimes Mozart did go a little outside his box and did some things that one might expect more out of Beethoven because Beethoven is viewed as the revolutionist while Mozart is often viewed as a pleaser. Mozart didn't do it too often though and sometimes no more than once depending on the genre and the idea.

[@blindcanseemusic]

@@badsoundingpiano430 thank you. I’d never heard that point about Mozart.

[@donkgated8074]

You're not alone. This is the most Beethoven-like of all of Mozart's sonatas in my view.