
Who would have thunk that I would one day be using this janky 1912 International Music Company, New York edition by Carl Flesch and Arthur Schnabel edition as a primary source. Of course, in historical performance, we are trained to work from either facsimile of a composers manuscript or the first edition of a work, in order to prune back the countless layers that decades (and sometimes hundreds of years) of editing provides. But when looking at how players of the early-20th century performed Mozart, its not useful to look at the source material, as it wasn't freely available to them. Bowing, slurs, dynamics, and sometimes even notes themselves have been modified in this edition and offer invaluable insight into the performance practice of the early-20th century.
Also, a little preview of the original 1860s conical Böhm flute by Parisian maker Isidor Lot that I’ll be using for the upcoming "New York, 1920" concert.