モーツァルトのクラヴィコード

【モーツァルト自身が指伝いに感じた響きを通じ、傑作の素顔に迫る】
天才作曲家モーツァルトが生まれたザルツブルクの生家(現在は博物館として一般公開中)には、作曲家が晩年まで作曲に使っていたというクラヴィコードが保管されています。構造上きわめて小さな音量しか得られない楽器ということもあり、18世紀当時には作曲家周辺のごく限られた人しか耳にできなかったその響きを通じて、この楽器を用いて書かれたと考えられる晩期作を中心に聴くことが出来る好企画盤がALPHAから登場。バロック初期から近現代まで幅広い演目で存在感を発揮するゲオルク・ニグルを歌い手に迎え、この貴重な楽器に秘められたニュアンス豊かな味わいを十全に活かした演奏を聴かせるのは、クラヴィコード&チェンバロ奏者として着実に注目されつつあるリンツ出身の俊才アレクサンダー・ゲルゲリフィ。《魔笛》序曲のファンファーレから最後の「涙の日」まで、クラヴィコードという楽器の音量の小ささを忘れさせるほど幅広い表現で綴られてゆく名作群はまさしく、作曲中のモーツァルトの心象を垣間見るかのよう。ニグルも楽器の特質を踏まえ、時に間近で語る囁きのような声で各作品の詩的・劇的特質を浮き彫りにします。クラヴィコード録音を含む数々の古楽器名盤をZig-Zag Territoiresから世に送り出した名技師フランク・ジャフレスによる、楽器そのものを間近に感じられる丁寧なエンジニアリングも絶妙。ライナーノート(独、英、仏語)には両演奏家の言葉も収録されています。
ナクソス・ジャパン

The performances here are billed as "recorded on Wolfgang Amade Mozarts personal clavichord at his birthplace in Salzburg." That may give the impression that Mozart got the clavichord early in life in Salzburg and kept it throughout, but in fact it was a later model, and hearing it is one of the many pleasures on this 2025 release. The clavichord has quite a variety of voices in the kinds of pieces in which keyboardist Alexander Gergelyfi uses it here, including songs, piano works, and operatic excerpts that would not have been performed on the clavichord in public, but for which there is a good deal of evidence that Mozart worked on them at this keyboard. Indeed, a note from Constanze Mozart found inside the clavichord states that he wrote Die Zauberflote, K. 620, and other major works while seated at the instrument. In general, the role of the clavichord in music of the High Classical period is underappreciated, largely because it was too quiet to be much used in concert. However, it remained in use well into the 19th century, and even Beethoven had lessons on it, and the music here is especially fascinating when heard this way. The clavichord has various sounds, some of them almost electronic from a modern perspective. Gergelfyi and baritone Georg Nigl devise unique interpretations that seem to take one into Mozarts creative mind. The various songs included here, some of them comic, are often considered minor parts of Mozarts output, but here, they have an intimate quality connoting significance to Mozart himself and his friends. Sample the humorous Die Alte, K. 517, marked Ein bisschen durch die Nase ("A little bit through the nose"). The album ends with two pieces that here seem deeply philosophical, the Masonic cantata Die ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls Schopfer ehrt, K. 619, and the Lacrimosa from the Requiem, K. 626. The album as a whole definitely gets points for sounding unlike anything else out there, and for this reason, it made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2025. Beyond that, it offers a window on Mozarts creative process, shedding light on a part of that process that hasnt yet been fully evaluated. ~ James Manheim