Mozart Concerto No. 20

Who knows, it could also be that WAM wanted a trill with a slightly fuller sound (after all, we are at the cadence, with the strings crescendoing and then going to the tutti) than what his instruments offered (Graf? Walter? Schantz?), ... maybe if he had had a Steinway he would have left it there 🙂

Furthermore, I don't want to remember incorrectly, but even in the sonatas there are cadenza passages that close with an ascending turn and then a trill an octave below (like in the III movement of K333). So it is also a stylistic option. Of course, in this case ABM's choice is a bit more debatable.

Eheheh if he had had a Steinway, perhaps he would have made several radical choices in his pieces, even regarding tempo! The sound decay times of pianos from that era were truly ridiculous compared to those of today, despite the harmonic spectrum being much richer. The problem was that there was little attack transient; the strings were struck at imprecise points that developed harmonics that were even completely dissonant but which filled out and gave body. However, the sustain was non-existent, so the sound passed into a very fast decay phase to die out in a few seconds, which is why I was also talking about modifying the tempos.

This Simone is curious. Was there really no sustain?

Sorry, I expressed myself poorly. It has always been there, but in much, much smaller quantities compared to today.

Has anyone asked themselves this question: who is ABM to contradict WAM?

WAM wrote:

... and then, whose cadenzas are they?

It is obviously not by Brahms, Beethoven, Alkan and others... but I'll venture a guess: Camillo Togni, a pupil of ABM and a composer.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillo_Togni

his is the cadenza of a K503 recorded by Arturo for DG

http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/cat/single?PRODUCT_NR=4293532

But it is only a hypothesis 😵

Thanks Rotore for the attempts and also to the others for the ideas.. hypotheses ....

WAM wrote:

A couple of examples to ask: why is the trill at 10:40 performed an octave higher?

I hadn't seen your question, but I'll try to give you my take: that passage is, in fact, a micro-cadence, which ABM embellishes by also adding the ascending scale; therefore, it's not just about the trill, but it was (and is) established practice to embellish cadences. Try listening to Brendel's recordings of Mozart's concertos; they are a goldmine of beautiful examples of how one can enrich Mozartian writing, which, as we know very well, was often made for «top brass» since he himself performed the solo part. This is not about contradicting what someone told you, but about knowing the customs of the era and following them—if one is capable of doing so, of course; otherwise, it's better to limit oneself to playing as written...

Thanks Carlos, but if it is practice ... why does nobody touch the sonatas?

...the discussion on cadence remains open, aside from the Rotor hypothesis ... any other ideas?

WAM wrote:

Thanks Carlos, but if it is practice ... why does nobody touch the sonatas?

Because in the sonatas there are no cadenzas that introduce the orchestra's entrance