"Mozart"

[achebeautiful]

Happy Birthday Wolfgang!



Today is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 250th birthday. Thank God for Mozart and every other genius who has gifted this world with classical music, a living illustration of what beauty sounds like.

Here's a bit of coverage and odd bits about our birthday boy, who to this day makes all of our lives better:

Jerusalem Post: Mozart at 250: no signs of slowing

It is now 250 years since Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria - and some 245 years since this prodigy among prodigies fashioned his first little pieces for keyboard under the helpful eye of his father, Leopold. The world has changed radically since 1756 but Mozart remains a constant - we continue to regard the mixture of clarity, grace and formal balance in his music with undiminished awe. He seems to have been incapable of vulgarity or overstatement: In his mature works, there is hardly a wasted gesture or a note out of place. And yet it all seems so effortless, so absolutely spontaneous.

[achebeautiful]

"Introduction to Mozart's Music"- Mozart composed his first work three days before turning 5 and wrote his last notes as he lay dying only 30 years later. In all, he wrote at least 626 works, including some of the most beautiful music ever imagined.
His music, written during the days of powdered wigs and ruffled shirts, generally adheres to the highly structured classical style, a musical version of the triangles, rectangles and columns of a Greek temple. Despite the rigid architecture, in which a theme is stated over four measures and then answered during the next four measures, Mozart's music offers great variety and unsurpassed melodies.
A guide to some top selections from Mozart's vast output (the K. numbers are designated by musicologist Ludwig von Koechel's catalogue of Mozart's work):
SOLO PIANO:
_ "Ah vous dirais-je, Maman," (variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star") K. 265: The piano variations just swirl around the melody, like a time-lapse camera capturing the planets orbiting the sun at rapid clip. So simple, yet so brilliant - like a diamond in the sky. Composed 1781-82 in Vienna at age 25-26.
_ Sonata in A, K. 331, 1781-83. A gentle theme breaks into variations, complete with Mozart's inventive embellishments. The Allegretto movement is the famous "Alla Turca," a whirling Dervish march that puts you in awe.
_ Sonata in C ("For Beginners"), K. 545, 1788. Its simple first theme seems so elementary, but the sonata is complex. The joyful theme is quickly followed by breathless runs. Then comes a slightly agitated second melody with harp-like runs that flow up and down and lead to a sad minor section before returning to the original melody. But there's so much more.
SYMPHONIES:
_ Symphony No. 1 in E flat, K. 16: Composed in 1764 while the 8-year-old boy wonder and his 11-year-old sister were in London with their domineering father and their mother. An amazingly sophisticated composition from someone so young. The harmonic progression of the chords played by the violas and winds in the first movement are quite imaginative.
_ Symphony No. 31 in D major, K. 297: Composed in Paris, premiered July 3, 1778, the day his mother died while she was traveling with him. Considered the link between early and late Mozart symphonies.
_ Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550: Composed in 1788 in Vienna, this is Mozart's penultimate and perhaps most beloved symphony. The first movement's sadly sweet, rolling melody is passed around the orchestra, its contrasting dynamics vary the degree of angst.
CONCERTOS:
_ Concerto in A for Clarinet, K. 622: Composed in Mozart's last year, 1791, in Vienna for fellow Freemason Anton Stadler, a clarinetist. Mozart didn't write for the instrument until late in his life. The concerto contains one of Mozart's most beautiful slow movements. The clarinet melody pours directly out from the heart. Used in the Oscar-winning movie "Out of Africa."
_ Concerto in C for Piano, No. 21, K. 467, 1785, Vienna. That sensuous slow movement provided the theme from the movie "Elvira Madigan."
CHAMBER MUSIC:
_ "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik," K. 525, composed in 1787 around the time he was writing his great opera "Don Giovanni." The serenade was a composition that's not supposed to last. Thankfully, this one did. It's one of Mozart's most popular pieces.
_ Quartet in B flat for Strings, "Hunt," K. 458, 1784. One of six he dedicated to composer Franz Josef Haydn. During a performance for Haydn, the father of the string quartet declared Mozart "the greatest composer." The quartet's nickname, not Mozart's idea, came from the violins' resemblance to hunting horns in the first movement. The jaunty first theme also conjures the image of a huntsman riding on a cantering horse.
OPERA:
_ "Voi, che sapete," aria from "Le Nozze di Figaro," ("The Marriage of Figaro") K. 492, 1786: The character Cherubino, torn by desire, sings "what is this yearning burning in me?" in this tale of love and infidelity.
_ "Deh, vieni alla finestra" from "Don Giovanni," K. 527, 1787. The insatiable lover Don Juan serenades his next victim, singing: "Please, come to the window, oh my treasure." What a catchy mandolin accompaniment!
_ "Der Hoelle Rache" aria from "Die Zauberfloete" ("The Magic Flute") K. 620, 1791. In this comedy pitting the forces of light against darkness, the Queen of the Night sings of "the vengeance Hell raging in my heart." Mozart has her reaching stratospheric high Fs.
SACRED:
_ Motet in F for Soprano, "Exsultate Jubilate," K. 165, 1772: Mozart's Alleluia chorus, a joyous conversation between orchestra and soprano. The soprano sings one word - "Alleluia," high, low; loud, soft; circular, straight; tender, brash.
_ Requiem, K. 626: 1791, Vienna: Mozart's final piece, commissioned by a mysterious benefactor. Last three movements completed by Mozart's pupil Franz Xaver Suessmayr. According to the 1808 biography by Franz Xaver Niemetschek, cited by mozartproject.org., Mozart had the uncompleted score brought to him on Dec. 4-5, 1791, and said, "Did I not say I was writing this Requiem for myself?" He died that day

[achebeautiful]

Mozart at 250: no signs of slowing
By TIM PAGE


It is now 250 years since Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria - and some 245 years since this prodigy among prodigies fashioned his first little pieces for keyboard under the helpful eye of his father, Leopold. The world has changed radically since 1756 but Mozart remains a constant - we continue to regard the mixture of clarity, grace and formal balance in his music with undiminished awe. He seems to have been incapable of vulgarity or overstatement: In his mature works, there is hardly a wasted gesture or a note out of place. And yet it all seems so effortless, so absolutely spontaneous.

Indeed, because Mozart's music is so flowing, direct and eloquent, many listeners think it must be easy to perform. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although almost any third-year piano student can read through the Mozart sonatas, it is a different matter entirely to play them well. Many other composers demand more in terms of muscle, pyrotechnics and flashy virtuosity, but there is an extraordinary transparency to Mozart's music, and any imbalance, no matter how slight, is glaringly obvious. As such, the interpretation of Mozart remains one of the supreme tests of any great musician.

Today, January 27, marks the anniversary of Mozart's birth, and every composer's stock rises in notable birthday years. In 1970, the Beethoven bicentenary, it seemed every other new recording was devoted to one of his symphonies or sonatas. In 1985, we were served helping upon helping of Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann, the tricentenary birthday boys.

Now it is Mozart's turn. Yet he is always a familiar presence in the concert hall and opera house, even when it isn't "his year." In New York, Lincoln Center has presented an annual festival, appropriately titled "Mostly Mozart," for the past 40 years: No other composer could fill the house so reliably.

I suspect that a principal reason for Mozart's popularity is his universality. He speaks to almost everybody (the only convinced Mozart-haters who come to mind are Noel Coward and Glenn Gould) and he never pushes us. If all you want from one of his compositions are some good tunes and seraphic harmonies, he will surely provide them. If you want much, much more, Mozart, in virtually all of his mature pieces, will provide that, too.

This sets him apart. Charming composers such as Vivaldi and Telemann offer a good deal of pleasure but usually - usually - not much else. And there is necessarily work involved in coming to terms with the greatest music by Bach and Beethoven; it is impossible to imagine, say, a late Beethoven quartet or Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" playing as background music. But it is not so impossible with Mozart - indeed, turn on your television late at night and prepare to shudder at the uses to which this composer's music is put.

In no way am I trying to justify such debasement, nor am I suggesting that Mozart is somehow less deep than Bach and Beethoven. But Bach and Beethoven tell us exactly what they want to tell us, while Mozart lets us find what we want in him, on our own levels of need and understanding. And - as sorry as this fact makes professional musicians - a good percentage of any classical audience merely wants to sit back and be entertained. So be it. The depths will always be there for those who are ready to plumb them.

For example, I first heard The Marriage of Figaro as a 12-year-old boy and found it sweet and pretty and ever so much less impressive than, say, Tosca or Cavalleria Rusticana, which had blood and guts and bawling and mad passion. But then I heard Figaro again, and then again, and I heard more and more in it, until it became my favorite opera. Now, almost 40 years since my first encounter, every time I play Figaro - or, even more happily, see it performed - I marvel anew that one of my fellow human beings actually managed to pull himself far enough out of the mud to create this miracle of order and civility. Yet it's such a friendly masterpiece - warm, funny, forgiving, even downright silly - and if there is an important universal emotion that is not explored, musically and dramatically, over the course of the opera's duration, I don't know what it is.

(continued on next post)

[achebeautiful]

Mozart at 250: no signs of slowing
By TIM PAGE

(Continued from page 1 of 2)
The legend of the eternally cheerful, periwigged boy wonder to the contrary, Mozart worked hard throughout his life. From earliest childhood he was a breadwinner for his family, a crushing responsibility for any child, as the example of artists ranging from Jackie Coogan to Michael Jackson can attest. He suffered first from parental exploitation, later from a certain immaturity that comes from being detained in childhood too long, and finally from melancholia, dissipation and frail health that led to his death at 35. He was buried in an unmarked grave - a common practice in 18th-century Vienna, and certainly no disgrace. Still, many have always found it deeply disturbing that we have no way of locating the remains of this great genius.

And yet he need not be sought, for he is all around us. In 1906 the pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni was asked to write a series of aphorisms to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mozart's birth and - 100 years later - most of us would echo what he had to say.

"Up to now he is the most complete manifestation of musical gifts," Busoni began. "Every genuine musician looks up to him, happy and disarmed. ... He disposes of light and shadow, but his light does not pain and his darkness still shows clear outlines. Even in the most tragic situations he still has a witticism ready; in the most cheerful, he is able to draw a thoughtful furrow in his brow. He is young as a boy and wise as an old man - never old-fashioned and never modern, carried to the grave and always alive."

"His smile, which was so human, still shines on us transfigured."

[achebeautiful]

World Celebrates Mozart's Birthday
Hot rock and cool jazz mixed with the classics in Salzburg, as Mozart fans spilled from museums and concert halls into a floodlit main square in an exuberant 250th birthday bash echoed by thousands of other commemorations worldwide.

As the city of his birth, Salzburg claimed first rights in the international celebrations of Austria's favourite son, showcasing him in a dozen events that displayed not only his musical mastery, but also his life, loves and leisure pastimes.


Salzburg church bells pealed at 8pm, the hour of his birth. Posters sprinkling the city proclaimed Happy Birthday Mozart, while the daily Salzburger Nachrichten displayed a full-page portrait of a serious-looking Wunderkind sitting at the harpsichord, with the headline: "Salzburg celebrates its great son."

And it was mostly Mozart elsewhere across the globe, with uncounted concerts, opera performances, marathon classical broadcasts and other events celebrating his musical gifts to the world.

The Google search engine even altered its Internet site logo, bedecking an "o" in the name with a Mozartian wig and replacing a "g" with the treble clef.

Giants of classical music praised the creator of more than 600 works, who was also known as a lover of scatological jokes, and an impertinent youth who talked back to Austrian Emperor Joseph II after he criticised Mozart's second opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio.

"He comes from another star," conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt said, as he grappled to define Mozart in his entirety. Others put it more simply.

"I have CDs of him playing all day," said medical company sales director Peggy Taylor, of Richmond, Virginia, as she prepared to go Mozart-hopping from Salzburg to Vienna. "He brings me back into balance."

In Sweden, state radio set up an Internet radio station broadcasting 24 hours of "Wolfie's hits & misses." Public TV also honoured Mozart with a 12-hour special. Orchestras and opera houses performed his works in Moscow, Washington, Prague, London, Paris, Tokyo, Caracas, Quito, Havana, Mexico City, Taipei, Budapest, Beijing and scores of other cities worldwide.

In Austria, the celebrations added special spice to the rivalry between Salzburg - where Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 - and Vienna, where he died 35 years later.

[ocelot]

Happy Birthday Wolfgang! Thank you for your beautiful music that we still enjoy today.