I'm not a big fan of Mozart. Obviously he was a genius, a prodigy and so on and his music will live on for ever and ever. It's just that it is so pretty. It's so well balanced, perfectly proportioned, just a bit clinical and clever for me. A gross generalisation of course, and there are bits I like. The Requiem for example (except for Süssmeyer's bits) is great and I love the opening movement of Symphony no 25 in G minor but then balanced against all that are the slow movements!!!!!
Ah, the slow movements. The only reason I sort of liked the slow movement of the Mozart sonata I played for grade VIII piano is that it was slow enough that I could play it reasonably well. Playing double bass in the slow movement of a Mozart symphony is like a creeping death by down beats. I just don't "get" it. Maybe if I played the violin I'd think differently.
Most musicians I know think me a philistine and that is probably fair enough. However, there is a part of me which doesn't want to like Mozart because everyone else does and, as a musician (as a human for that matter), you are meant to like Mozart. It's like part of the the job description. I remember buying "classical" collections as a teenager (in particular an LP of overtures with my O level set works on and ZZ Top's Eliminator in the same transaction which seemed to freak out the girl in Merthyr WHSmith for some reason) and inevitably you got Eine Kleine bloody Nachtmusik followed by the overture to Le Nozze de Figaro (when the best part of that is the trio in Act I (or is it Act II? Can't remember.) There's a lovely horn pedal point though...whoops, I'm getting enthused about Mozart now which isn't the point) plus there would be the Facile sonata...the scales, the alberti bass, that prissy tune, the fact that everyone tries to play it and slaughters it, usually (myself included). The same tunes over and over again on every damn "classical" collection. Obviously I should listen to more. Maybe the recitatives from Cosi or similiar. Or one of the other movements from Eine sodding Kleine.....
Having said that one of my favourite musical memories involves Eine bloody Kleine. I was busking around Europe after university and, in Salzburg, this guy was playing the opening arpeggio motif on the penny whiste whilst standing outside the Mozart Gebortshaus. He couldn't get past the 8th note without playing a C# instead of a D and kept repeating the same bit over and over again. It was even funnier than my cello playing in Copenhagen but that is a different story for a different post.
I gave some pupils homework to listen the first movement of a Mozart symphony (most of them went for 40 or 41) and the first movement of Bruckner's 7th symphony as a way of telling the difference between Classical and Romantic symphonies (sweeping statements but this SQA after all...). I asked them to also tell me which one they preferred and why. The ones who preferred the Bruckner did so because it seemed to have more going on, was less predictable, more "interesting". Those who preferred the Mozart found the Bruckner long winded and ponderous. I suppose Bruckner is long winded and ponderous, over the top, bombastic, repetitive, over blown, etc and that is precisely why I love his symphonies and motets in particular. I just switch off when I hear Mozart, however. Shame on me.
The more I listen to and play Haydn the more I enjoy it. Beethoven I love, especially the late stuff like the Grosse Fuge. Schubert is alright, especially the lieder. But Mozart...hmm...maybe I am a Philistine. I don't like the Beatles that much either. And I'm a huge Status Quo fan. So who am I to talk about music?
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