Jocelyn Wang <[log in to unmask]> replying to me:

>Leslie Kinton <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>
>>I used to be a fanatic about always doing all repeats as being the only
>>historically accurate way of doing things...  'till I heard no less than
>>Malcolm Bilson point out that Mozart himself was quite cavalier about the
>>whole matter, and left them in, or took them out according to how the piece
>>would fit the rest of the programme.
>
>I am rather skeptical about this, to say the least.  The fact that Malcolm
>Bilson said so does not, in itself, constitute hard evidence.  Can you (or
>anyone else on the list) document that Mozart did this?

Interesting.  Could you perhaps provide us with the motive for Malcolm
Bilson lying to his audience in this manner, or is it your contention that
he is merely ignorant?

>Even if it were so, Mozart was in a position to decide only for his music.
>It would not justify ignoring, for example, a Beethoven repeat.

Actually, it would, if as Bilson says, it was standard practice in late
18th and early 19th-century Vienna.  As to Beethoven in particular, it is
instructive to remember how he gave his permission, in writing, for one of
his students (Czerny?) to mangle op. 106 in London by omitting a movement
(I forget which one; when I get back from my present tour, I'll look it up)
and rearranging what was left to make it at least plausible.

Leslie Kinton
The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto.
Anagnoson and Kinton piano duo website: http://www.pianoduo.com