Mozart & Fiala Amadé, mon ami

Did Wolfgang Amadé Mozart compose for viola da gamba? Certainly! His father Leopold Mozart bears witness to this. Joseph Fiala, the most famous viola da gamba player of the time after Carl Friedrich Abel, was Mozart‘s close friend and lived in Mozart‘s Salzburg birthplace from 1778 to 1785. Echo Klassik prize-winner Thomas Fritzsch performs on Fiala‘s 1709 Salzburg viola da gamba. Motivated by this precious instrument from Mozart's closest circle, Thomas Fritzsch set off in search of lost compositions. In the process, he discovered the long-lost Fiala Concerto for viola da gamba and orchestra in a Swiss monastery. The first recordings on this album are supplemented with traces of the viola da gamba from Mozart's oeuvre, which testify to the important role this instrument still played in Mozart's time. Fritzsch is accompanied by Michael Schönheit on an original tangent piano and the Merseburger Hofmusik.
 

Thomas Fritzsch
Michael Schönheit
Merseburger Hofmusik