CD 97
Musical Instruments in the Ferdinandeum 4
Johann Georg Psenner is one of the best instrument makers of the Tyrol. He was born in Innsbruck in 1747 and inherited his gift from his father, a native of Bozen, who had settled in Innsbruck as a lute and violin maker. Johann Georg had already gone to Mittenwald, the violin-making center, for his apprenticeship in his youth. His master was the excellent violin maker Georg Klotz, who trained him to become an outstanding instrument builder. In 1768 Psenner took over the workshop of his deceased father and continued it with success. Other instruments of his making that have been preserved in the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum besides this mandolin are a violin and a violoncello. Johann Georg Psenner probably made his mandolin for practical use. The delicate stringed instrument had been introduced in Austria and become popular through itinerant virtuoso mandolin players from Italy around that time, thus creating a demand for instruments. Composers active outside Italy also took to writing for the mandolin, even if only peripherally. Mozart composed two songs with mandolin accompaniment around the time when Psenner was building this instrument. Beethoven’s oeuvre includes four small pieces for mandolin and piano composed by the master during his stay in Prague in 1796 for a music- loving countess who played the mandolin herself. Composers such as Leonhard von Call met the enormous demand for music for different instruments to be played at home. Their music was intentionally adapted to the taste of music connoisseurs and amateurs, and was printed by many different publishers, often in large editions.
Track 5, 2:13
Komm, liebe Zither KV 351 (367)
W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)