Mozart Expert Malcolm Bilson Performs in Televised Concert -

Malcolm Bilson at the fortepiano.

The Music of Mozart: Malcolm Bilson in Concert and Conversation
Thursday, August 13, at 10 p.m.
on WKAR-HD and WKAR-23

Mozart Expert Malcolm Bilson Performs in Televised Concert

In September 2006, fortepianist and Mozart expert Malcolm Bilson appeared live in WKAR-TV’s studios as part of the station’s celebration of Mozart’s 250^th anniversary. In a fascinating and memorable evening, Bilson performed works by Mozart and his contemporaries on a fortepiano, which is the type of instrument on which the composer himself would have performed.

That concert, which combines the performance with the charming artist’s commentary on Mozart, the period and its music and the instrument, was recorded for broadcast on WKAR. The Music of Mozart: Malcolm Bilson in Concert and Conversation features the concert in its entirety.

90.5 WKAR will feature music performed by Bilson on Thursday, August 13, as well, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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.

Bilson, who teaches at Cornell University and is also director of the 18^th-century Historical Keyboard Performance Practice program, 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 18^th-century pianos have in large part been responsible for the fortepiano’s return to the concert stage.

Bilson performs Fantasy in C minor, K. 475 (1785) and Sonata No. 12 in F Major K. 332 (1783) by Mozart and 11 Variations on Ein Madchen oder Weibchen from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, by Johann Baptist Cramer.

DVDs of The Music of Mozart: Malcolm Bilson in Concert and Conversation, with extras that include a conversation with Bilson and Jody Knol and a “play music only” feature are now available at Shop WKAR for $25. This is a recent addition to the collection of videos produced by WKAR.