Mozart Birthday Remembered 2007

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: January 27

 

Remembering Mozart Birthday 2007

Thanks to those who sent email on how they remembered Mozart's 251st birthday,  in particular, the music they opted to listen.

Susi from Germany, writer on Baesle (Marianne Mozart, Mozart's first cousin), listened to a bunch of the wunderkind's best piano concertos.

Stephanie Cowell, author of Marrying Mozart was listening to some violin sonatas.

Another friend in the US opted to watch some opera videos especially The Magic Flute.

Listening to my favourite Mozart violin sonatas, and the master's wind music, flute and clarinet, has been a constant delight.

Happy 251st Birthday dear Wolfgang!

(January 27, 1756 - December 5, 1791)

Last year, 2006, the whole musical world commemorated the 250th birthday anniversary of this wunderkind, genius and child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Right now, on Sydney’s ABC, I’m listening to his piece being played, not that common as compared to Eine Kleine … or Piano Concerto 21, but it’s so delightful, haunting and brilliantly played… it’s Mozart’s duo of viola and violin in G major, k.423.

Yesterday, I asked some Mozart friends if they might want to pay tribute through my website. The best I got, so honest and just pure delight, is from the mouth of a lovely 10-year old Anna Della Marta, who responded on behalf of her grandmother and friend Agnes Selby, author of Constanze, Mozart’s Beloved:

Here’s what young Anna said, “Just say you love that little boy to bits and he has given you more joy than any other composer. He has to me all my life.”

So there we are, from the mouth a 10-year old. Obviously, she loves Mozart. By the way, Anna plays the cello.

I’ve written few of my own tributes to Mozart. Once again, a paragraph or two, why not… Being a lifelong Mozartean, I have been drawn to his music and find it extremely difficult to choose which of his work would qualify as ‘most famous’ and therefore I will dispense with this task.

Is Mozart the greatest composer in the history of music? To me, this question is immaterial. I do love and admire many other composers – Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Liszt, to name a few – but no other has ever composed in the great range of genres at the same time excelled in all of them. A prolific composer, Mozart composed more than 600 pieces of music in different categories in his short-lived life of 35.

Why Mozart? Mozart’s music soothes me more than anything. Piano. Violin. Strings. Woodwind. Opera. Sacred music. Symphonies. Name it …. His music doesn’t give me turbulence, instead, it pleases, and gently touches my soul. I do not need any criteria or tonal design analysis to support his greatness. The beauty and perfection of his creation – serene, majestic, gentle - continue to delight.

Thank you for your music Mozart.  

Suggested Readings:

Mozart and Singing  by Joseph So. 
That's Mozart to Me!  by Tel Asiado

(c) January 2007. Updated January 2015. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.