This business of the deification and de-deification of Mozart brings up
the issue of one of the measures of "greatness," popularity.

I'm not much of a Mozart fan, but there is no question that he sells
more CDs than any other composer.  Does that mean he's the greatest?
If you could take another theoretical measure of greatness (or
significance--and of course there are many), the "amount" of pleasure
produced by his music--the sums of the intensities of pleasure produced
by all those ever hearing his music, I think that would also put him on
top of the classical composers.  This is because while his music is at
best enjoyable to me, others weep to it.

But probably the Stones have produced a greater amount of pleasure than
Mozart.

In any case, Lebrecht's grandstanding on Mozart only serves to heighten
my esteem for the composer.

Jeff Dunn
Alameda, CA