Walter Meyer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>... Every Mozart lover comes back to his g minor Quintet K. 516.  If after
>hearing that, a listener still fails to appreciate Mozart as a composer
>whose genius transcends a facility to write catchy tunes, I can only repeat
>the comment of a famous jazz musician asked by a lady to explain it to her:
>"Lady, if I gotta explain it, you ain't never gonna understand."

I write as someone who, as I now see it, has "grown into" Mozart.  As a
young student, I made cleverly deprecating remarks about Mozart.  Everyone
studying music theory and composition virtually worshipped "difficult" and
"sophisticated" composers, and Mozart didn't fit the bill.  Looking back
now, I wonder how I had my head so deeply embedded in my butt.  In a
similar vein to Walter's message, I listen to the following works (and
others) and wonder how people can still view Mozart as anything other than
one of the greatest composers who ever lived: Marriage of Figaro, Magic
Flute, D Minor Piano Concerto (20), the clarinet concerto, the G minor
string quintet (K516), the g minor symphony (#40), the clarinet quintet,
the c major string quintet (K515), and even relatively early works like
the 5th violin concerto.  Those works, along with others, combine beauty,
drama, and humor in a way that arguably has never been equaled.  Mozart,
Mahler, and Elliot Carter, as different as they are, can all coexist.
And the "difficulty" and "sophistication" of Mahler and Carter in their
respective periods can genuinely be respected and admired, but it is
easy now, with our "20th century ears," to forget how "difficult" and
"progressive" Mozart was, especially late in his incredibly short life.
But Mozart can't really "shock" us anymore, and the current intellectual
climate unfortunately makes it therefore less likely that Mozart will be
fully appreciated.  I've been "shocked" enough now by 20th century music
that will probably be little more than fodder for music history texts.  I'm
much more interested in music that resonates on a deeply emotional level.

Drew M. Capuder
Fairmont, West Virginia USA
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