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John Irving plays Mozart on the Hass Clavichord. CD Recording.

This CD recording of solo keyboard works by Mozart on a clavichord dating from 1763 is a project in historically-informed performance. As performer, Irving pursues the following research questions: (1) what do 18th-century keyboard performance treatises reveal to the player of historical keyboard instruments regarding such issues as touch, articulation, sound production and control of phrase-shaping that can be applied in a particular performance setting? (2) to what extent do they endorse or regulate performer-inspired improvisatory ornamentation and embellishment going beyond the notated score? (3) to what extent does organological knowledge of a particular historical keyboard instrument appropriate to this repertoire - and especially its mechanical idiosyncrasies - influence the performer's technical approach to interpreting the music in a performance (for instance, in managing issues of dynamic range and contrast, accentuation, attack and decay as sound components in the live construction of a theme or phrase)? Methodology: (1) drew in detail upon published 18th-century texts on keyboard performance (for instance, by C.P.E. Bach and D.G. Türk), along with other sources of information on specific issues, such as Mozart's correspondence and autograph manuscripts demonstrating his approach to ornamentation); (2) and (3) involved a close study of the clavichord as an instrument, including the commissioning of a new instrument based on a similar 18th-century German model by a contemporary British maker used in the preparation phase. This underpinning research context guided Irving’s application of historically-informed keyboard techniques and contemporary (18th-century) attitudes to text realization throughout the preparation phases and during the recording sessions (April 2011), which were filmed, forming a central part of the associated website providing supplementary documentation for the project in text, audio, photo and video: www.mozartclavichord.org.uk