Neal Zaslaw

Mozart's Piano Concertos is a collaboration by twenty of today's prominent musical thinkers. Generously illustrated with facsimiles, tables, and more than one hundred musical examples, it substantially advances our understanding of Mozart's wonderful works. Its exceptional scope - addressing everything from textual problems (what notes should be played?) to questions of form (the striking identification of the concerto's first movement with the aria) to performance practice (how can we make the music sound more nearly as Mozart heard it?) - will make it invaluable to anyone who loves Mozart's piano concertos.

"Mozart's symphonies have received rather less critical attention than his operas and piano concertos, and this book is the first serious attempt in any language to survey the entire panorama of his symphonic works. Accounting for every symphony associated with Mozart involves the identification and evaluation of nearly 100 symphonies. Professor Zaslaw places each symphony in its mu-sical and cultural context, and addresses such questions as how and why the symphonies were written, how they were disseminated, who paid for them, who played them, who listened to them, and what those involved thought of them. The role of the symphony in Mozart's creative life and his contribution to the genre are also examined. An important element of the book is the consideration given to what is known about how Mozart's symphonies and those of his contemporaries were per-formed. An entire chapter is devoted to the whole question of orchestral perform-ance practice in the eighteenth century, and information that might clarify the nature of the performances documented is given throughout the book. Although Mozart's Symphonies is neither a biography as conventionally understood nor a study in musical analysis or criticism, those interested in Mozart's life and the music itself will find here much that is new in the way of fact and interpretation."--Publisher's description.