Piano Forum

Haha....if you want a good laugh about Mozart being easy/sophisticated, read the thread started by Breadboy.  You have to get a few pages into it to get to the hilarious parts.

Moving on, yes I do have something to add to it. 

Mozart was writing in a time when it was the fashion for everything to sound simple.  Yet Mozart was capable of writing with great complexity.  He often found this challenging, and he wrote in his letters that it was his goal to write music that would be immediately accessible to the amateur, yet hold tremendous fascination for the expert.  He did succeed in pretty much everyone's opinion.  My Schenkerian analysis teacher used to point out uncommon devices Mozart used, and then he would say "Mozart knew everything."  (In this case he was talking about some really strange register transfer where one voice moved by half step while being transposed down two octaves and arriving on some strange chromatic harmony.  It was 6 years ago---I can't remember the details.)

One thing that Breadboy rather astutely points out, is that Mozart did not ever write anything very virtuosic.  But that is simply because it would have gone against the style of his day.  For someone with the talent and ability to play the very hardest show pieces, Mozart is quite easy.  But for many of us mortals, trying to master the ease, clarity, shaping, and fluidity of Mozart does not come easily.  Mozart used to say you should play with a legato that flows like oil.  I don't think I've got that one yet.