Mozart - the Girl Prodigy. Keyboard artist Gili Loftus gives a lecture-recital at the 2024 Witches? Festival in Jerusalem

Gili Loftus (SergioVeranesStudio)

 

The Witches? Festival (music director: David Shemer), an annual event under the auspices of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, addresses the subject of women composers and performers in music. "Mozart: the Girl Prodigy", taking place in the conference hall of the Jerusalem International YMCA on September 17th, 2024, was presented by keyboard artist Gili Loftus (Canada-Israel), performing on a fortepiano by Chris Maene (Ruiselede Belgium, 2009), a copy of an instrument by Walter, 1790, Vienna. The lecture-recital shed light on W.A.Mozart's elder sister Maria Anna, usually referred to as Nannerl, their mother Anna Maria Walburga Mozart and on the close ties within the Mozart family.

 

Hearing readings on how Nannerl toured Europe with her father (Leopold) and younger brother Wolfgang, we understand that she was far from being in her brother’s shadow. In fact, in a letter, Leopold Mozart had written that "my little girl, although she is only 12 years old, is one of the most skilful players in Europe.” Nannerl also composed. In a painting by Johann Nepomuk Della Croce 1780/1781 showing the siblings at the keyboard, Leopold standing at the side, with a portrait of (the deceased) Anna Maria on the wall, we see that Wolfgang and Nannerl continued to engage in music-making into their late 20s. When Nannerl reached marriageable age, her father stopped taking her on tour. She carried on composing until her marriage in 1784. Sadly, no works of hers survive.

 

For the first musical item of the evening, Gili Loftus was joined by David Shemer to perform Mozart's Sonata for Piano Four-Hands in D major, K. 381/123a (1772), a piece Wolfgang and Nannerl played when touring Europe as child prodigies. (They would most likely have played it on the harpsichord, since the hammered fortepiano did not replace the former until the following decade. The lack of dynamic markings in the manuscript probably indicates that the piece was indeed written for harpsichord.) The artists addressed the work's large (somewhat orchestrally-conceived) range of gestures and textures in the effervescent outer movements, the Andante (second) movement's direct songfulness, with its effective use of low bass tones, enriched by some imaginative ornamenting, to be followed by the comic-opera-style repartee of the final Allegro molto. 

 

A far cry from Mozart's cheerful, spry sonata oeuvre composed up to that point, Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor, K.310/300d, the first of only two Mozart piano sonatas in minor keys, was composed in the summer of 1778. At that time, the composer was visiting Paris and tending to his ailing mother. She would die there on July 3rd. Mozart was 22. (Although the sonata's darker "terrain" tends to be linked to the death of Mozart’s mother, and this cannot be ruled out, there is no authentic evidence that points to such a connection.) Following the energy generated by the bold, defiant gestures of the opening movement, Loftus' playing of the second movement (Andante cantabile) was poignant, reflective and resourcefully embellished, emerging with an air of spontaneity, then to be swept aside by her candid, energetic reading of the Presto, her meticulous finger-work producing each gesture with clarity. An outstanding performance!

 

Georges Bizet, a virtuoso pianist himself, transcribed the entire "Don Givanni" opera for piano solo at the request of Heugel & Cie (published 1866). Loftus made a hearty reference to Mozart the opera composer with three movements from "Don Giovanni" (arr. Bizet/Loftus), her spirited, forthright and genial presentation of moments from this "dramma giocoso" emerging characterful, vividly conveyed and engaging the fortepiano's imposing timbral and dynamic palette. With Zerlina's sweetly coquettish aria "Vedrai carino" (You'll see, dear one) sandwiched between the zesty Overtura and the cheeky "Eh via buffone" (Go on, fool), this item made for vivid, entertaining concert fare.

 

The recital concluded on a personal note, with Gili Loftus' pensive, insightful rendition of the Largo from Sonata in A minor Wq 50/3 by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. 

 

Known for her expertise on fortepiano, modern piano and harpsichord, for her publications and for her solo- and collaborative performances, Gili Loftus today makes her home in Montreal.