Nannerl Mozart

Album review

"The music and personality of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have always been very close to my heart. I could not have predicted, however, that the late 18th century would become alive to me beyond his music and his life.
In 2017, the Swiss dressmaker Christian Tanner created a historical women’s collection in the style of the 1780s-90s that was completely sewn by hand and for which I became the face and the inspiration. The transformation that came through wearing these gowns, having historical “tower” hairdos created with my own hair, induced a feeling of magical connection between the past and the present that led me to wonder: What must have been the sense of self of a woman at that time?
How must she have sat at her instrument, constrained by the tightness of her corset and how could she move her hands? By actively participating in historical reenactments like candle-light soirées, dances and leisurely walks, Mozart’s daily life as I imagined it to be, based on his surviving family correspondences, started to take a clearer shape. Through these experiences, I started feeling connected to the woman who in 1780 was the same age as myself today and who shared a most intimate relationship with Wolfgang, even before his first wife: His sister Nannerl." (Helga Váradi) © Claves Records