Famous musicians on famous music

[eddie92099]

What memorable quotes are there from famous musicians on famous music? To get it started:

"They were written by a deaf man, and should only be listened to by a deaf man" Thomas Beecham on Beethoven's last string quartets.

Ed

[Noah]

"Mozart died too late rather than too soon" Glenn Gould  

[bernhard]

Wagner has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour.

***

It is a music one must hear several times. I am not going again.

Gioacchino Rossini on Wagner

***

What do you think of Beethoven?
- I love him, especially his poems.

Ringo Starr at a press conference

***

He is not a brook (Bach in German), he is an Ocean!

Beethoven on J. S. Bach

[eddie92099]

"Wagner, he's better than he sounds" Mark Twain
Ed

[bernhard]

"Mozart died too late rather than too soon" Glenn Gould  

A light, bright, fine day this will remain throughout my whole life. As from afar, the magic notes of Mozart’s music still gently haunts me. (Franz Schubert)

Mozart is the musical Christ. (Tchaikovsky)

Mozart is the most inaccessible of the great masters. (Artur Schnabel)

Does it not seem as if Mozart’s works become fresher and fresher the oftener we hear them? (Robert Schumann)

If we cannot write with the beauty of Mozart, let us at least try to write with his purity. (Johannes Brahms)

Beethoven I take twice a week, Haydn four times, and Mozart every day! (Rossini)

Before Mozart, all ambition turns to despair. (Charles Gounod)

Mozart encompasses the entire domain of musical creation, but I’ve got only the keyboard in my poor head. (Chopin)

What gives Bach and Mozart a place apart is that these two great composers never sacrificed form to expression.  As high as their expression may soar, their musical form remains supreme and all-efficient. (Camille Saint-Saens)

The most tremendous genius raised Mozart above all masters, in all centuries and in all the arts.  (Richard Wagner)

In Bach, Beethoven and Wagner we admire principally the depth and energy of the human mind; in Mozart, the divine instinct. (Edvard Grieg)

Together with the puzzle, Mozart gives you the solution.  (Ferruccio Busoni)

I find consolation and rest in Mozart’s music, wherein he gives expression to that joy of life which was part of his sane and wholesome temperament. (Peter Tschaikovsky)

Mozart tapped the source from which all music flows, expressing himself with a spontaneity and refinement and breathtaking rightness. (Aaron Copland)

Mozart’s music is particularly difficult to perform.  His admirable clarity exacts absolute cleanness: the slightest mistake in it stands out like black on white.  It is music in which all the notes must be heard. (Gabriel Faure)

Mozart shows a creative power of such magnitude that one can virtually say that he tossed out of himself one great masterpiece after another.  (Claudio Arrau)

The works of Mozart may be easy to read, but they are very difficult to interpret.  The least speck of dust spoils them.  They are clear, transparent, and joyful as a spring, and not only those muddy pools which seem deep only because the bottom cannot be seen. (Wanda Landowska)

Mozart resolved his emotions on a level that transformed them into moods uncontaminated by mortal anguish, enabling him to express the angelic anguish that is so peculiarly his own.  (Yehudi Menuhin)

The sonatas of Mozart are unique: too easy for children, too difficult for adults.  Children are given Mozart to play because of the quantity of notes; grown ups avoid him because of the quality of notes.  (Artur Schnabel)

Mozart is the highest, the culminating point that beauty has attained in the sphere of music.  (Tchaikovsky)

Mozart is sweet sunshine.
Antonin Dvorak

(Actually, I don't like Mozart that much - definitely an overrated composer )

[srdabney]

"For your next lesson, five days from now, you have to bring me all of Ravel's 'Gaspard de la nuit' and Schumann's 'Abegg Variations.'"

All right, so I brought them all learned; it was not difficult because I didn't know that it was supposed to be.

Argerich

[eddie92099]

She was of course eight at the time,
Ed

[bernhard]

Eight? Are you sure?

From what I read, she was 14 or 15... :-/

[eddie92099]

I forget my source. You probably shouldn't quote me on it until I remember where I read it ,
Ed

[bernhard]

Here is what I have:

"Born on June 5, 1941, Argerich began piano lessons while still in nursery school. Her first significant teacher was Vincenzo Scaramuzza, with whom she worked between the ages of 5 and 10. After four additional years of study with Francisco Amicarelli (a former Scaramuzza pupil), it was decided that Argerich's next step should be further study in Europe. Argerich and her mother then embarked for Vienna, where she began 18 months of private study with Friedrich Gulda."
https://www.musicalamerica.com/features2001/musician.htm

"Sometimes he [Friedrich Gulda] would challenge me because I would be lazy.  I wouldn't work and learn fast enough.  I was going through a sort of mystic crisis about God, whether I believed in God and the immortal soul.  It was complicated.  I used to arrive late at every lesson and start talking about this with him. I was so worried and he had to answer, and at the same time he knew I was doing this because I hadn't prepared.
"For your next lesson, five days from now, you have to bring me all of Ravel's 'Gaspard de la nuit' and Schumann's 'Abegg Variations.'"
All right, so I brought them all learned; it was not difficult because I didn't know that it was supposed to be. When one doesn't know that a piece is very difficult, one learns it easily. If you know already from everybody that this piece is difficult, then you don't learn it fast. I didn't know this, so I learned these pieces fast, and he was very happy about it."
https://www.andrys.com/arg-1979.html

Therefore, she must have been around 14 – 15 when Gulda gave her the assignment.

Have you heard of the Argerich conspiracy theory?

https://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/1345/conspiracy.html

[eddie92099]

You are right. I wonder where I read that she was eight, probably some dodgy internet site ,
Ed

[bernhard]