The Music of Mozart: Malcolm Bilson in Concert and Conversation
WKAR celebrates Mozart's birthday with acclaimed fortepianist Malcolm Bilson.

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WKAR continues its celebration of Mozart's 250th anniversary with a special concert featuring acclaimed fortepianist Malcolm Bilson. Between pieces, Bilson talks about the selections and about the fortepiano, the type of instrument which Mozart used when composing.

The fortepiano is the successor to the harpsichord and the precursor of today's modern piano. It has the thin strings of a harpsichord combined with the ability to vary the volume depending on how hard the key is struck, like a modern piano, however, the tone is softer and less sustained.

The concert was recorded before a live audience in the WKAR studios and includes "11 Variations on 'Ein Madchen oder Weibchen,' from Mozart's 'The Magic Flute'" by Johann Baptist Cramer, as well as two pieces by Mozart: "Fantasy in C Minor” and "Sonata # 12 in F Major”.

Malcom Bilson teaches at Cornell University and is also director of the 18th-century Historical Keyboard Performance Practice program. Bilson was hailed as “the exemplary Mozart pianist of our time” by the New York Review of Books. His performances and recordings of works by composers like Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven on replica and original five-octave late 18th-century pianos have in large part been responsible for the fortepiano's return to the concert stage.

This WKAR television special was produced by WKAR-TV's Joe Barnhart and 90.5 WKAR FM's Jody Knol.


Original air date: November 22, 2006