Mozart: String Duos

Featuring

Catherine Cosbey
Dorian Komanoff Bandy
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Did you know?

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Recording & Production

The performers, Catherine Cosbey and Dorian Komanoff Bandy, along with Laurel E. Zeiss, discovered these arrangements in rare book libraries in Texas and Germany.

Compositional Technique

One arrangement on this recording transforms Mozart's Sonata for violin and piano, K. 305, into a duet for two string instruments, which was unusual for the time.

Composition History

The selections from Mozart's opera La clemenza di Tito (1791) on this album are adaptations by composer J. C. Stumpf (c1740-c1800) for two violins.

Historical Context

During Mozart's time, music by renowned composers was frequently adapted for other instruments, allowing people to enjoy selections from larger works in private residences.

Recording & Production

Some of the arrangements on this album may not have been heard since the early 1800s.

Interpretation

Performers on this recording add ornaments and decorative touches to Mozart's music, especially to cadences and repeated sections, a practice encouraged during and immediately after Mozart's lifetime.

Historical Context

Before recordings existed, playing duets was a popular social activity, and this album reflects what an afternoon of music-making between two string players in the 1790s might have included.