Malcolm Bilson

Malcolm Bilson (b. October 24, 1935) is an American pianist specializing in performance on the fortepiano, which is the 18th century version of the piano. Bilson teaches at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., where he is the Frederick J. Whiton Professor of Music.

Bilson is known for his series of recordings (on the Archiv label) of the piano concertos of Mozart, in collaboration with John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists. He has also recorded the complete Mozart and Schubert piano sonatas for Hungaroton. In collaboration with six of his former students Bilson has produced a complete recording, on Claves Records, of the piano sonatas of Beethoven. These recordings use a set of nine restored or replica pianos, each of a type contemporaneous with the sonata being performed. He also created a DVD, "Knowing the Score," which questions many of the basic concepts of musical performance taught in conservatories and music schools around the world, specifically, the lack of adherence to notated articulations and assumptions about the length of rhythmic values. Bilson has published several articles on the subject of interpreting late 18th- and early 19th-century compositions by Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven in Early Music and Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae.

Fortepiano builder Carey Beebe assesses Bilson's influence as follows ([1]):

Malcolm Bilson, who began after 'the Father of the Fortepiano', Phil[ip] Belt, dropped around one of his first reproduction instruments to try, still provides great impetus to modern makers. His Fortepiano Summer Schools in the 1980s were an inspiration, and many of the musicians who attended those schools, along with his Doctoral graduates, have spread the word around the globe. Bilson's DG Archiv recordings of the complete Mozart Concerti were a milestone.

References

Publications by Malcom Bilson:

• "Schubert's Piano Music and the Pianos of his Time," Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 22 (1980), 263-71.
• "The Viennese Fortepiano of the Late 18th Century," Early Music (April 1980), 158-62. (abstract)
• "Interpreting Mozart," Early Music (November 1984), 519-22.
• "Execution and Expression in the Sonata in E-flat, K282," Early Music (May 1992), 237-43.
• "The Future of Schubert Interpretation: What Is Really Needed?" Early Music 25 (1997), 715-722

External links

• Prof. Bilson's Web page at Cornell University
• Web page for the multi-piano Beethoven project
• Web page Prof. Bilson's "Knowing the Score" DVD
• Articles on Cornell's celebration of Bilson's 70th birthday on October 24, 2005
  • "Piano concerts and symposium will be music and words to Malcolm Bilson's ears"
  • "Bilson to celebrate his 70th with students".