ABSTRACT
Erich Fiala was more than just an enthusiastic and wealthy amateur musician who collected artworks and old musical instruments. As a decent amateur musician and an intelligent and original thinker, he pursued his ideas and aspirations much further than might have been expected of a mere collector with money and time on his hands. The logical appeal of his idea provided the turning point for the young Isolde Ahlgrimm, who had already proven her own capacity for practical scholarship, intellectual curiosity, and hard work, while about to embark on a successful career as a concert pianist. Ahlgrimm began to commit to memory the complete solo piano music of Mozart and to investigate music by Mozart's contemporaries and immediate predecessors that was then totally unknown. The pseudo-Romantic light, in which the Moonlight Sonata normally appears so distorted, was replaced by the clearer and less opulent tone colours afforded by use of an original fortepiano.
