Mirko Ilic
Posted on 09/17/2006 2:47:51 AM PDT by Pharmboy
Mirko Ilic
POOR Mozart, who died at 35, must have inherited at least the potential for longevity from his parental gene pool.
His father, Leopold Mozart, died at 67, a ripe old age in an era when rampant illnesses claimed the majority of European children in infancy. Sadly, Mozart’s indomitable mother, Anna Maria, died at 58 while in Paris, having contracted viral infections and a severe fever during an arduous trip with her rambunctious, opportunity-seeking 22-year-old son. Mozart’s sister, Nannerl, who had also been a musical prodigy, died in 1829 in Salzburg at the impressive age of 78, having well outlived her husband, an officious Austrian prefect and two-time widower with five children, who resented their stepmother.
Mozart’s death in 1791 was probably caused by streptococcal infection, renal failure, terminal bronchial pneumonia and a matrix of other illnesses, some dating from his childhood, when the Mozart family spent years touring Europe to show off the boy genius and, to a lesser extent, his sister.
Imagine how different music history would have been had Mozart lived to Nannerl’s age. He would have died in 1834, having outlived Beethoven by seven years and Schubert by six. Would Beethoven’s symphonic adventures have turned out as they did had Mozart remained his contemporary?
Think of this. A wizened old Mozart might have been in the audience in 1829 when the 19-year-old Chopin, during a short visit to Vienna, performed his first work for piano and orchestra, Variations on “Là ci darem la mano” from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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Today will be Mozart.
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But the conductor has decided we're to pronounce the Latin in the Austrian/German style of the 1700s...so all the familiar words...sung countless times thru the years for all of us...have to be relearned.
I'm not sure I get the point of this exercise...
You know, I've always had this theory that God felt Mozart's music was getting too good for the consumption of mere mortals...
Can you imagine the works Mozart composed after his death? Maybe someday I'll find out.
Conductors. They're madmen (or women)!
But, I'm just a lowly chorister, what do I know?!!
Well, if we'd have elected Lurch,- Superman would be walking, and Mozart would still be composing in D.
Ah taci, ingiusto core!
Indeed...or if he was Canadian or lived in the UK under the National Health Service.
Beethoven's Kiss
http://www.afn.co.kr/archives/readings/beethove.htm
Coincidentally, I had a conversation with one of my piano students just this past week about how short his life was, and how much more of his music we would be enjoying if he had lived a longer life.......
Schubert's loss is just as great if not greater. The last 18 months of his life were of staggeting productivity and inspiration. Much more so then the work of Mozart's last few years with a few exceptions (The Magic Flute, the Requiem).
Mozart died so early because he literally ran out of notes. Had he only spread out his notes over more time, he would have undoubtably lived longer.
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