Research has shown that many printed editions from the 18th Century provide more reliable guidance as to the composer’s intentions than Mozart’s own autograph manuscript; the composer himself prepared many of his works for printing marking them with precise performance instructions for dynamics and articulation. He devoted particular care to the slow movements which are often richly ornamented in the printed editions.This knowledge together with regained access to source materials in the libraries of Eastern Europe gives us sufficient grounds to publish a new Wiener Urtext edition of Mozart’s Sonatas. Advice on performance from the renownedMozart connoisseur Robert D. Levin provides fresh stimulus for revising rather tired standard interpretations of Mozart.
