Mozart's emergence as a mature artist coincides with the rise to prominence of the piano, an instrument that came alive under his fingers and served as medium for many of his finest compositions. In Mozart's Piano Music, William Kinderman reconsiders common assumptions about Mozart's life and art while offering comprehensive and incisive commentary on the solo music and concertos. After placing Mozart's pianistic legacy in its larger biographical and cultural context, Kinderman addresses the lively gestural and structural aspects of Mozart's musical language and explores the nature of his creative process. Incorporating the most recent research throughout this encompassing study, Kinderman expertly surveys each of the major genres of the keyboard music, including the four-hand and two-piano works. Beyond examining issues such as Mozart's earliest childhood compositions, his musical rhetoric and expression, the social context of his Viennese concertos, and affinities between his piano works and operas, Kinderman's main emphasis falls on detailed discussion of selected individual compositions.

Auteur

William Kinderman is Professor of Music at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations (OUP 1987) and Beethoven (OUP 1995), and he has edited numerous works on many other composers and pieces. An outstanding pianist, Kinderman has recorded Beethoven's Diabelli Variations and last sonatas for Hyperion/Helios Records.