Posted on 03/25/2017 6:45:56 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell
A fussy, effete lttle man, whose own character is well expressed by that of the protagonist in Don Giovanni, going through life transfixed with his own navel (but that's too high).
In violin concerto no. 5 in A major, he's using the noble instrument of Stradivarius, Guarneri and Amati as his own pudenda, a prolonged act of cultural onanism. His failure even to attempt to approach God in emulation of the Blessed angels, shows how granting the boon of total, infused knowledge is casting pearls before swine to a corrupt little human.
He lived as if his genius had been his own invention, as if the gift of glimpsing God's music with his angelic children (see Music of the Ainur, Silmarillion, Tolkien), instead of a being a supreme gift, personally justified and legitimized him.
At first I was mystified that Wagner despised Mozart. But Wagner regarded his own musical gift a negligible, just a platform for his dramatic presentations.
Your talent is God's gift to you. You can't become autonomous by straining against the traces, trying to use genius to become your own god. The greatest creature, Lucifer, the light bearer, came to think of himself as The Light.
Listening to all of Mozart's piano sonatas in order of composition, you see the shock of his discovery of Sebastian Bach, a man who lived humility in his motto Only For the Glory of God, soli Deo Gloria. Mozart started composing the most stilted, artificial piano sonatas in Sebatian's style, veering off course from his own path to seeing God's course for his life. The minuetto of the Jupiter, his last symphony, beneath the facile elegance of the greatest classic polyphony, shows the eyes of despairing, pathetic little man who couldn't live up to the singular gift which had been granted to him, because he tried to use it for self-worship instead of its true purpose, glorifying the Almighty.
bkmk to listen later. - Thanks
“My husband is a huge Verdi fan.’
Me too. That Joe Green is THE BEST! Opera in the Park? (or, inside joke with me and hubby: Obera in the Barn?)
Domingo! Most Excellent!
(He is everything that that other guy who is dead pretended to be.)
Slightly off topic - But since Figaro was mentioned...
Here is a marvelous performance of Largo al Factotum from a “lesser known” voice.
Lesser known but Rossini has never before been blessed with such zestful animation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq_0wPYFp9A
Just saw “Manhattan” at the Film Forum here in NYC. The black and white shots of New York over the soundtrack of Rhapsody in Blue - yet again - caused the audience to burst into wild applause. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Gershwin.
“This thread is WEIRD.”
Yes.
Man. I wouldn’t slam an outhouse door that hard...
Very nice. I don’t know the singer, though. I always thought The Barber of Seville was a nice opera to introduce to kids and people who don’t know opera. My first was Tosca which is enjoyable as well although Pavarotti refused to fall down dead after he was shot. I always enjoyed him for what he would or would not do on stage. He rarely did anything!
The movie Amadeus was GARBAGE—as far from reality as possible.
Hollywood movies are not the place to get the real world.
When you put it that way yes; but I always thought of Mozart as the prototypical Jazz musician!
Wasn’t that Spinal Tap?
Sounds like Count Salieri’s fan base is on FR....
So very true. The author is but an insignificant presence in the light of the gift from God he so demeans.
I totally disagree with this wild eyed hate infested diatribe. Having sung Mozart for over a quarter century with orchestra I found him bringing people closer to God after each performance than before.
He was for sure a genius and perhaps irreverent at times as many people are in their youth. He only had his youth had he lived longer perhaps what we think of him would be different.
While there is no comparison that can be made of Mozart to J.S. Bach, it does not take away from the quality of the Godly music that Mozart produced. Bach was probably the most prolific musician to have ever lived, that he was humble enough to live as a church mouse is wonderful, not everyone is willing to do that. Mozart depended on his music for his livelihood and therefore produced operas that paid well, he had a tendency to live well. He gave the people what they wanted, an irreverent look at life, but he also produced some of the most reverent music you could ever listen to. I do wish he could have lived longer so that we could have more of his work.
Considering how short his life was his production of music was most wonderful and often most reverent.
While J.S. Bach produced a huge amount of wonderful music and was likely a genius there will never likely be anyone so musically gifted again as was Mozart. Mozart was barely an adult when he died at the age of 35. J. S Bach lived nearly twice as long and produced (as did Mozart) music up until the end of his life. What a wonderful age of music that was.
Over the Mountain and Flying High Again were staples in my 80’s Hair Metal band’s set list.
Funny. I really don't know how anyone cannot enjoy Mozart.
Mozart is bird music for girls.
Men listen to Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms, Verdi and Wagner.
Homos listen to bird music for girls.
“And if one hasn’t heard Enzio Pinza in The Marriage of Figaro, one probably doesn’t know what I’m talking about.”
Verdi is more passionate in every opera than Mozart was in his most passionate.
And musically, far more effective.
I can understand women liking Mozart...he wrote to/for them. Essentially he was one himself.
[[too mechanical and tedious.]]
Then You;ll like this kid- (mixes classical in with improve- no training he claims- 16 years old-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysEM3ojgMfk
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You are SO wrong!
While there is some of that in some of his music it is not in his choral music, it certainly isn't in the Requiem. There is nobody who could do variations on a theme better than Mozart, he would have loved Jazz. The style of the day was to have themes in music and to modify the themes without repetition was a difficult thing to do, he did it best. Variations on a theme may sound like formula music, like computer code perhaps, but, it is not that simple. When Mozart did it he often changed not just the time signature but often key and not a simple change of key, often from major to minor and then back. To listen to Mozart's Requiem is to be lifted into Heaven for a few minutes.
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