Piano duets of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: a 21st century view

Abstract

The article analyzes the updating of scientific and creative information on the significance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's piano duets as a communicative component of the modern musical context with an emphasis on the development of the genre sphere of the piano ensemble and the activity of the processes of cognition of the brilliant composer's work. The study highlights the role of W. Mozart's piano duets in the cultural and social activities of contemporaries – representatives of various professions (musicians, publishers, organizers of cultural events, doctors, psychologists) based on a combination of information about the functioning of these works in performing, publishing, scientific and other spheres of activity. It is emphasized that among other genres, Mozart devoted a significant place to the genre of the piano ensemble, in which he covered various instrumental compositions: an ensemble of pianists on one and two instruments; a duet and a trio of pianists with an orchestra. It was determined that, given the constant interest of performers in the interpretation of the composer's piano duet works, sheet music publishers continue to release new collections. The importance of Mozart's piano duets in assessing the professional skills of pianists – ensemble players is confirmed by the introduction of these works as mandatory in the program requirements of famous international piano duet competitions. As a result of the analysis, it was found that there is a trend associated with the arrangements of Mozart's piano duet sonatas for various quantitative (from 4 hands to 2 hands) and qualitative (from piano to 2 guitars, 4 clarinets and piano duet with a wind quintet) types of performance. The study of V. A. Mozart's piano duets allows us to identify their influence on cultural and socially significant processes of the present. It is noted that the composer's two-keyboard sonata in D major K. 448 is very popular due to medical experiments called the “Mozart Effect”.