Twenty Early Keyboards reviewed by Susan Alexander-Max in “Musician”, Winter, 2003 – 2004

Twenty Early Keyboards is a treat for the early keyboard enthusiast, or for those interested in keyboard history. Because there was no one instrument that suited all music, it is impossible to generalise about early keyboards. Every maker produced individual instruments with individual sounds: a piano from 1835 might sound earlier than a piano from 1820, the English piano different from the Viennese and so on. Kenneth Mobbs has taken all this into account and produced a carefully chosen compilation of music, matching 20 different instruments from his collection with the appropriate repertoire, which is what early keyboard playing is about.

What are we hearing then? I would guess, as close as we can get to the sounds of the time, in most cases on instruments that are, or are very nearly, two hundred years old. So, remember to listen with 18th-century ears!
 

Twenty Early Keyboards reviewed by Philippa Estall in Early Music Today, Feb./Mar. 2004

Twenty Early Keyboards strike a chord

In 1975, Kenneth and Mary Mobbs began building their collection of early keyboards in order to experience for themselves this almost forgotten sound-world. Today they own 39 instruments, five of which were donated in 1997 to the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments and another nine of which are on permanent loan to the Royal Academy of Music in London, where they can be visited (and heard) in the Piano Gallery of the York Gate Museum. Kenneth Mobbs has now released a compilation CD entitled Twenty Early Keyboards to demonstrate the varied character of these exceptional instruments.

Each is represented by a composition chosen to match its particular qualities. Thus the c. 1815 Heichele fortepiano, a rare example of an instrument incorporating Turkish-style drums and bells, and possessing no less than six foot pedals, is demonstrated through Mozart’s well-known Alla turca rondo from Sonata K.331. A Beethoven bagatelle illustrates the remarkable Broadwood piano of 1808, which uniquely among fortepianos possesses a Venetian Swell, and Clementi’s music is performed on instruments built by Clementi, including the famous upright grand of 1806, which stands 8 foot 5 inches high and is one of the tallest pianos in existence.

The CD is a salutary reminder of the sheer variety of pianos available between 1780 and 1840, for they vary not just in pitch, but in size, construction, action and quality of sound, standing in vivid contrast to the uniformity of today’s factory-made uprights and grands.

Mobbs’ playing throughout is charming, unpretentious and musically thoughtful; it was particularly enjoyable to hear, for instance, Schubert’s Impromptu in A flat, D835 on the Fritz fortepiano of c.1813, or the famous Valse in A flat of Chopin on the 1844 Broadwood grand, where the leanness and distinctness of the sound gave clarity and shape to the musical lines. Altogether, a fascinating historical document, sensitively performed.