Psn souasnk W. A. Mozarta – CD

This album explores the musical world of 18th-century Prague and the journey between Prague and Vienna through songs performed by Martina Jankov and Barbara Maria Willi. Its central repertoire comes from Czech song composition at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, with works by Vclav Jan Tomek, Leopold Koeluh, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jan Josef Rsler, Joseph Haydn, Jan Vclav Voek and Jan Vclav Kalivoda. The programme reflects the close musical connections between Prague and Vienna, as well as the fact that Czech composers primarily set German and Italian texts to music. It also evokes the flourishing of German songs for domestic music-making, the associated publishing activity and the rapid spread of the piano in the 1780s. Leopold Koeluh was one of Viennas most successful song composers, while Rsler worked in Prague to preserve Mozarts legacy after the composers death. Tomek and Rsler shared a refined literary taste and an impeccable choice of texts. Martina Jankovs lively, fresh and delicate soprano voice suits the Mozartian repertoire, while Barbara Maria Willi plays a 1797 fortepiano by Franz Joseph Baumeister, the only surviving instrument of its kind.