Eva Badura-Skoda – författare

In the late 17th century, Italian musician and inventor Bartolomeo Cristofori developed a new musical instrument—his cembalo che fa il piano e forte, which allowed keyboard players flexible dynamic gradation. This innovation, which came to be known as the hammer-harpsichord or fortepiano grand, was slow to catch on in musical circles. However, as renowned piano historian Eva Badura-Skoda demonstrates, the instrument inspired new keyboard techniques and performance practices and was eagerly adopted by virtuosos of the age, including Scarlatti, J. S. Bach, Clementi, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Presenting a rich array of archival evidence, Badura-Skoda traces the construction and use of the fortepiano grand across the musical cultures of 18th-century Europe, providing a valuable resource for music historians, organologists, and performers.

Originally published in German as Interpreting Mozart on the Keyboard in 1957, this definitive work on the performance of Mozart's works has greatly influenced students and scholars of keyboard literature and of Mozart. Now, in a completely updated and revised edition, this book includes the last half century of scholarship on Mozart's music, addressing the elements of performance and problems that may occur in performing Mozart's works on modern instruments.

Paul Badura-Skoda is considered to be one of the great pianists of his generation, as well as an important scholar who has created definitive editions of many of the works of the Viennese masters, most notably Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart. With his wife, the noted musicologist Eva Badyra-Skoda, he wrote the highly influential Interpreting Mozart on the Keyboard, first published in German in 1957, then in English and Japanese in 1962 and 1963, respectively. Long out of print, this important work has never been updated to reflect the last half-century of scholarship on Mozart's music. Now, the husband and wife team have tackled this project, producing an entirely new text that will serve students and scholars of keyboard literature and of the great composer.

This collection of articles, written by European, American and British scholars, clarifies problems of style and chronology in the music Schubert composed during the last decade of his life. Althought O. E. Deutsch's documentary biography and memoirs set new milestones in Schubert research, they left some problems of chronology unanswered. Some of the essays in this volume examine or re-examine these problems, using different methods. Robert Winter, in the longest essay, proposes numerous re-datings of works composed between 1822 and 1828 which result from a careful examination of types of paper and watermarks. Other contributors point out the limitations of applying stylistic criteria as the basis for the dating of individual works. The articles touch on all areas of Schubert's output, with the emphasis on his songs, theatre music, and orchestral and chamber works. Althought this book will be of primary interest to musicologists, and others interested in Schubert, the essays concerned with song and the theatre will also attract a wider readership.