Editor’s note

The present issue of Mozart Studies contains papers presented at a symposium that was, for many reasons, a very special event. It took place in 2020, during the Covid pandemic, being the first virtual symposium organized by the Romanian Mozart Society (RMS). It was a part of the 30th Mozart Festival, which, due to the pandemic, had to be run entirely online.

Being organized in 2020, the Beethoven year, the theme of the symposium was linked to this anniversary: Mozart and Beethoven – historical and analytical perspectives. But for Romanian musicians, and for the RMS members in particular, 2020 also marked the 10th anniversary of the death of the Society’s founder, professor Francisc (Ferenc) László, a Mozart scholar and leading figure of Romanian musicology. That was the reason why the RMS, together with the Doctoral School of the Academy of Music in Cluj, also organized a contest for young musicologists. They had to write an essay on the topic Mozart, after Beethoven. Myths, thinking, style. The two winners of the Francisc László Prize were invited to present their essays at the symposium. We are pleased to publish their papers at the end of this volume.

The symposium was attended by outstanding personalities such as William Kinderman, Helmut Loos, Tibor Szász, and Valentina Sandu-Dediu, the author of the opening article, a tribute to professor László. 

We hope you will find great pleasure in reading the articles in this new volume of Mozart Studies, which marks a triple anniversary – the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the 30th edition of Mozart Festival in Cluj, and the 10th anniversary of professor Laszlo’s death – all caried out in the shadow of the Covid pandemic.