Laurence Sherwood wrote:

>Mariana Cirne claims, about Mozart, that "His music is lacking in emotion."
>I mulled why she might react that way to his music, and thought I would
>share my reaction.  There is a sense in which music from the Classical
>Period is not as overtly emotional as music from the Romantic era, and
>that may be what Mariana is reacting to.  The idea that art might properly
>depict a personal sturm und drang (do I have that right, Walter?) is one
>that came about during the Romantic Era and would have probably been
>foreign to the classical mind set.

But if by "emotional" music, Ms.  Cirne means music in a minor key that
has loud passages, she might start w/ his 24th Piano Concerto in c minor
and his 20th Piano Concerto in d minor both of which can compete w/ the
romantic piano concertos of the 19th century on their own turf.  Or, for
a shorter piece, the overture to *Don Giovanni*.  There are also two g
minor symphonies.  The earlier one, No.  25 can satisfy anyone's craving
for Sturm und Drang; the later, No.  40, is in a class by itself.  While
not his last symphony (that would be the 41st, the Jupiter, in C) it
corresponds for me to the earlier g minor symphony the way Beethoven's
last quartet or piano sonata corresponded to his middle period quartets
or sonatas.

But if his Quintet in g minor (K.  516) which some of us, including Mimi
and me, have independently called to your attention, doesn't move you with
the seeming artlessness of the opening theme reminiscent of music from
the Eastern European Jewish Shtetl (Mozart was neither Jewish nor to my
knowledge Slavic) bravely making its statement and growing more complex as
the movement continues, the poignancy of the succeeding movements, ending
up w/ a cheerful rondo which I have always associated with a consoling
parent reassuring a child that there's no need to cry and that everything
will be all right, i.e., if the quintet doesn't invoke such emotions or
similar ones in you, maybe Mozart is not for you at this time.

Walter Meyer