[Fat Albert]

250 years ago today, a boy was born in Salzburg. He was baptized Johannes
Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. His father, Leopold, was a violinist and teacher. This boy lived from 1756 to 1791. During his lifetime, he changed the common practice of music in a way that only one has done before (J.S. Bach), and in a way that few have done since (Beethoven, Stravinsky, Schoenberg).

Mozart's music is in a class unto itself. NEVER has there been such music that is so EFFORTLESS to listen to. In fact, when I listen to Mozart, his musical ideas make PERFECT SENSE. As in, why didn't I think of that? Of course! The Classical era of music is marked by the notions of "pleasing variety" and "the natural." And when you listen to Mozart, the flow and mood of his music is simply unmatched!

Some recommended listening:

Clarinet Concerto in A-major K. 622 The greatest concerto ever written for any wind instrument. (I play the clarinet)
Symphony No. 41 in C-major "Jupiter" K. 541
Symphony No. 35 in D-major "Haffner"
Piano Concerto No. 22 in Eb-major K. 482
Piano Concerto No. 20 in D-minor K. 466
Piano Concerto No. 23 in A-major K. 488
Grand Partita in Bb-major for 13 winds and Double Bass K. 361
Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)(that's not the "Figaro Figaro Figaro"....that's Rossini's Barber of Seville)
**Don Giovanni
**Cosi fan Tutte (All women are like that)

The ** operas are without a doubt the most BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS, POWERFUL, SERENE pieces of music I've ever heard. They are simply over-the-top!

The music of Mozart changed my life, and I listen to him every day. True greatness survives the test of time, and 250 years after his birth, Mozart is still going strong. I know that 250 years from today, the celebration will be just as grand!

Happy Birthday Wolfie!!!!!


Fat A

P.S. "Amadeus" is a WONDERFUL movie, despite being fraught with NUMEROUS historical inaccuracies. For one, Mozart and Salieri were NOT enemies. In fact, they respected each other's work a great deal. But the sense that Salieri had that God had chosen Mozart to do His work, and not Salieri, is one of the most powerful, riveting moments in all of cinema. Watch it! The only problem is resisting the urge to see Wolfie (Tom Hulce) ask Salieri if he can buy some pot from him, ala Animal House LOL

[redbone]

Check out "The Impressario" It's a chamber Opera based on his wife and her sister's fighting over who's the Prima Donna with the Impressario (Mozart) in the middle.
You would also enjoy his "Requiem" it's interesting and a tear jerker because he died as he was writing it. The "Lacrymosa" is incredible and will stay in your head. The last movement was finished by an asistant.

[Fat Albert]

Originally Posted by redbone

Check out "The Impressario" It's a chamber Opera based on his wife and her sister's fighting over who's the Prima Donna with the Impressario (Mozart) in the middle.
You would also enjoy his "Requiem" it's interesting and a tear jerker because he died as he was writing it. The "Lacrymosa" is incredible and will stay in your head. The last movement was finished by an asistant.

This is true, Redbone. The Requiem Mass was in progress when Mozart died. One of his companions, a fellow named Sussmayer, finished the Requiem for him. Others have written their own endings to the Requiem. Whether what anybody wrote sounds like what Mozart would've wanted is anybody's guess.

Any of Mozart's operas are worth listening to. (Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, Idomeneo, Die Zauberflote, Mitridate, etc.) His ability to create melodic lines of such intense lyricism and beauty is simply unmatched.

Happy Mozart Day!
Fat A

P.S. I am a classical music nerd; I eat and breathe this stuff. I smoke something else, however....

[Calyxander]

Excellent and outstanding thread! Mr. Mozart has provided me with true auditory pleasure for many years.
All I would add to the works mentioned above would be a sampling of his magnificent quartets....esp K. 428, 421 and 465.
IMHO

[Fat Albert]

Originally Posted by Calyxander

Excellent and outstanding thread! Mr. Mozart has provided me with true auditory pleasure for many years.
All I would add to the works mentioned above would be a sampling of his magnificent quartets....esp K. 428, 421 and 465.
IMHO

I love K. 428! String Quartet in Eb-major. I saw the Ives Quartet perform this piece last year. The textures Mozart writes, especially in the 3rd movement, are sublime! Also, his set of "Haydn Quartets" (dedicated to Franz Josef Haydn) are a tour de force. These quartets are so difficult (and strange-sounding for the time, like the "Dissonant" quartet) that when they were first published by Breitkopf & Hartel, angry customers demanded refunds. These pieces were well beyond the technical capabilities of the average Viennese citizen/chamber musician (most quartets and pieces of chamber music during that era were written with the express purpose of having them published for home performance. No recording devices in 1785....duh!)

Fat A

[Calyxander]

Yes FA, I find these pieces to be truly transcendental in nature......hypnotically fascinating, after a couple of bowls I am transported to a separate reality!!

[redbone]

Yeah, Fat A, Calyx: I'm a bit of a classical music nerd myself. I was a professional for many years and have performed quite a few of his pieces. At the Requiem, the entire ensemble and the audience is wiping tears. I've done performances that just end where he stopped writing. Interesting.

I think of Mozart as one of those cats who just took the artform all the way out to the max and after him the it had to move in another direction. The boy was slingin' Concertoes and Symphonies from the age of 6 so by the time he was in his thirties he'd gone off into another edge. Become transcendental.

Coltrane took Bee-Bop as far as it could go. You wonder what Hendrix would have done if he'd lived. Mozart is the same kind of thing. He took the harmonic structure of the classical period as far as it could go. After him, all you could do was bring in Beethoven. Then Strauss. Then Schoenberg/Berg.

The abduction. Funny as Hell. Haven't heard that one in years!

[Fat Albert]

redbone,

You're right about Mozart pushing the limits. But I think that too many people lump Beethoven firmly in the Romantic era, and it just isn't so. Sure, the Ninth was unparalleled, but he had written the Choral Fantasia op.80 some years before.

Now if you want to talk about a guy who was a firm Romantic, provided the listener with some astonishing modulations, and died WAY too young (31)......Franz Schubert, anyone? Didn't he also write like 600 lieder?

Fat A

[redbone]

A: Yeah, I think of Beethoven as more of a bridge figure rather than someone who was firmly in the Romantic period. He was a contemporary of Mozart's if I remember correctly and they borrowed from each other. Beethoven had that Heroic, testoterone charged sensibility that had not been present in classical music earlier. Some of his stuff is just crazy big. For some reason I've never gotten around to listening to much Beethoven. I'll check that Choral Fantasia.

Franz Schubert certainly did get into some far fetched modulations and tonalities. I'm too familiar with many of his Leider and I gotta tell you that some are a lot better than others. I read once that Schubert is credited with taking music out of the concert halls and bringing it home to the middle classes. A lot of his Leider and some of his easier piano peices were written to be performed by amateurs at home. I would hope that "Heiden Roselien" and "Die Forrielle" stayed at home for the most part.

Didn't Schubert go nuts? Or was that Schumann?

[Fat Albert]

Schubert died of the tertiary effects of syphillis. Schumann went NUTS and died in an asylum. Evidently he had used some sort of device to stretch his fingers apart for better piano playing, and it destroyed his hands. Is "Die Forrielle" the "Trout" quintet? Or is that "Die Forelle"? Anyhow, Trout is beautiful!

Recommended Beethoven: Piano sonatas, emperor piano concerto no. 5 in eb-major op. 73, symphonies 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8. Notice the absence of 5 and 9. I should throw no. 3 "eroica" in there.....that is a revolutionary piece of music!