Carl,

Couldn’t the

I played the Flotuis Cadenzas with orchestra with great results – in my opinion. The style is appropriate, and it is very much interesting and cute.

I think a student should study the piece and ask their teacher which edition and cadenzas they believe to be the best.
My flutist colleague is a distinguished professor and an international performer and he had strong opinions about Mozart, specifically this concerto. We listened to different recordings of very famous performers and compared them and discussed how we wanted our performance to be a little more in keeping with Mozart’s style and sensiblity especially in the cadenzas. I studied 5 different cadenzas and discussed them with my flutist before we agreed on what we would do. In studying these cadenzas I asked many of my professional harpist friends which cadenzas of these they preferred and why.
Their answers were interesting and I enjoyed reacquainting myself with all the cadenzas.
The other cadenzas I considered were the Pillney, the Houdy, Kathy Bundock Moore, and the Reinecke which I had already studied and performed before. My flutist gave me the Badura – Skoda cadenzas that he had found in Austria and he wanted to try them. We compared all of them until we came to an agreement of how we wanted this Mozart performance to speak…. with tasteful elegance and refinement and not a lot a lot of romantic fluff in the harp writing. Ultimately we chose the Badura-Skoda cadenzas for the first 2 movements and I chose the Flothuis for the third movement cadenza. Although I will say the Flothuis did give it a little bit of a romantic feel in the harmony, it was still tastefully done. By the way, the Salzedo edition worked beautifully and my colleagues only made a few minor tweaks here and there to make it more Mozartean. My colleagues were impressed with my powerful performance of the “Salzedo” edition and in fact our performance received a rave review from the critic and wild applause by the audience. We had 2 call backs and heard “Bravos” from the audience where there were a few highly esteemed performers and musicologists.

Carl – FYI Marius Flothuis was a Dutch composer and considered a Mozart specialist. His cadenzas are very popular and approriate in style and are a lovely balance between the two voices. I don’t know what cadenzas you like to use but Flothuis’ are a popular choice.

Carl,

I had learned that at one time the harp was played with 5 fingers instead of four, and all harpsicord players were expected to play harp as well. I’ll do some research in this as I don’t recall

I have yet to hear any cadenzas as effective as the Reinecke in the Salzedo edition. The second-movement cadenza literally caused the audience to gasp at its tonal beauty. It conveys the spirit of the Mozart so well, and fulfills the possibilities of the two instruments, really without leaving style. There is little he did that is not possible in classical style. Perhaps nothing. I have heard some so dull and lacking in any pizazz that they detracted from the performance. I have not heard them all. But the Reinecke have star quality. As for the Salzedo edition, he neatly trimmed and pruned Mozart’s lines so they are consistent, smooth and flowing. The things he removed I have rarely heard played well when left in.

One could certainly play it in “period style on a period instrument” but that would simply remove all the improvements made in music since then, and reduce it to salon proportions and little significance, in my thinking. The only thing I might do differently from Salzedo, and only because I have worked on my one-hand trill a great deal, is to play that bit as written, because I had trouble getting the orchestra to cooperate with his re-orchestration. If you have the markings, he has the first chair violins play the harp left hand pizzicato so we can do a two-handed trill which matches the flute better. He also cuts out some of the wind duos that always obliterate the harp solos in the third movement.

Interestingly, I was commissioned to create a version for flute and harp duo with orchestra that I think works quite well. But it’s really not much easier, just good for a professional duo to use.

Hi, oh i wanted to write a post about