MOZART

[cloches_de_geneve]

"The little man from Salzburg was a miracle. More prothean than Bach, musically more artistocratic than Beethoven, he can be put forward as the most perfect, best equipped, and most natural musician the world has ever known."

Harold Schonberg (1997). The lives of the great composers. Abacus.

Do you agree?

[pianowolfi]

I love Mozart. I agree that he was a miracle. But with the remainig claims I mostly don't agree. Two pointless comparisons, three sonorous superlatives. Why? Just to write something?
And btw I also don't agree with this a bit dismissive term "the little man from salzburg". *shakes head*

[rach n bach]

Waiting for Mozzy to show up. 

[teresa_b]

Mozart was a phenomenon, and his glorious music is the only really living evidence we have of the man.  There are so many descirptions of him, some probably fairly accurate, most not. 

I agree, the comparisons with the other composers are superfluous--Mozart was influenced by, and in turn influenced a lot of others--but he holds a place of his own in history. 

For a nice documentary, watch "In Search of Mozart".   

Teresa

[pianistimo]

agreed with theresa_b.  just like liszt - he was able to have a lot of forsight.  i don't doubt liszt was a genius, too - but he also worked very hard.  a combined ability to work very hard and utilize the genius to full potential.

albert einstein (just read this article in the recent reader's digest) said that his ability to be creative came from the fact that as a child he was still questioning things that other people had already answered in their minds at very young ages.  for instance:  his theory of  relativity to time and space. 

mozart seems to defied have gravity also.  his music has a timeless quality.  that is because he ALSO looked to nature and the natural 'laws' that are very mathematic.  this provided the 'golden mean' - and an unnoticed, but very important part of why some humans seem to thrive on forms and ideas (motives and melodies) that have a classical form.  the healing and calming properties of this music on the mind have been proven.

just as the properties of liszt's music to provide passion and impetus to otherwise - thought boring classical forms when they were finally driven into the ground for a time.  a certain youthful purity was exchanged for a 'worldliness' - but at the same time sort of expresses the enormous explosion of knowledge in the industrial revolution.

now that we have so much technology and not always the peaceful surroundings of nature...(as they did in the 1800's) - i think we enjoy basking in the sun of previous musical times when people had a sense of more belonging to nature and God and analzying the natural world to see what it reveals.

ps another point i wanted to make was that mozart was similar to einstein in the fact that he wasn't scared of simple motifs or melodies.  he could take anything and make it a masterpiece.

[danny elfboy]

ps another point i wanted to make was that mozart was similar to einstein in the fact that he wasn't scared of simple motifs or melodies.  he could take anything and make it a masterpiece.

Just like real virtuosity is ease and not extreme effort, real geniusness is when more paths are lead to simple common denominators and not when simple paths are ramified into more and more complex outcomes.

[vlhorowitz]

I agree with Schonberg; Mozart was truly something else. His music's fire can really take you out of misery (and by fire, I don't mean senseless banging or crazy crescendos). There's something so perfectly clear and right about his music. And if you listen to his piano works with opera in mind, I don't think Mozart is overrated at all. Of course, I'd expect no less of a man who was blessed with just about every facility imaginable.

“Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.” - Mozart.