Piano Music For 4 Hands

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 1994

Label: Decca

Recorded at: Mozart Museum, Salzburg, February 1993.
Performed on Mozart's own fortepiano, played by him during the last years of his life. It was made in Vienna by Anton Walter c. 1780 and is 99 cm wide, 224 cm long and 86.5 cm high. The case is largely of walnut; only the spine is of spruce with a walnut veneer on the interior surface. The instrument has a Viennese action, the hammers are covered in leather, and the keyboard has a range of five octaves from F1 to f'". The natural keys are made of ebony, the sharp keys of inlaid ivory. The notes F1 to G sharp' are double-strung, a' to f'" triple-strung. The dampers are operated by two knee levers, the left one controlling only the bass, the right the entire keyboard. The notes with double-stringing are damped by wooden wedges, those with triple-stringing by cloth tufts. Both types of damper are covered with a thin layer of deer hide. The mute stop, operated by a knob on the face of the instrument, works by drawing a strip of woven felt between the hammers and the strings to produce a particularly mellow and velvety tone.