Mats Norrman replies to me:

>>Nobody followed Mozart, either.
>
>Nonsence.  Many followed Mozart, but as nobody of them became more famous
>than Domenico Cimarosa...

I should have said nobody after Mozart using Mozart's style equalled
Mozart's best work.  As far as I know, that's true.  You can obviously make
a case for late Haydn, but I consider him someone who came before Mozart.
On the other hand, you have people like Cimarosa, Clementi, Boccherini, and
Cherubini.

>>...that there are two kinds of people: French and German.  If you're not
>>one, you're the other.  Mitchell discovers Wagner as the common ancestor to
>>both and in so doing argues for a cohesive European musical culture (always
>>leaving aside Britain and Russia).
>
>Why does he draw this conclusion? I can well agree there are Berlioz
>influences in Wagner, but as I percieve Berlioz, he is rather German in
>his style than French.

"Forest Murmurs" from Siegfried is Impressionism before Debussy.
Tristan's mad scene is Expressionism before Mahler or Schoenberg.  To
a great extent, the vocabulary (and the idea of what constitutes music)
of both Expressionism and Impressionism comes from those earlier pieces.
That's the argument Mitchell makes.  I find it pretty convincing.

>>We might ask ourselves whether it's the critic's job to be right.  I've
>>never believed it.  Schumann may have praised Chopin, Brahms, Wagner,
>>Mendelssohn, and Berlioz, but he also went ga-ga over Niels Gade.
>
>Niels Gade is certainly not a Wagner or a Brahms in level, but he is
>averey charming composer, and interesting is certain types of works...
>vastly underrated, and always has to stand in the shadow, not only by
>Nielsen, but also from others, for example Holmboe.  I wonder if this
>ga-ga-Gade statment is your own.

Yes, it is.

>If so, what have you heard by him more than "Efterklage af
>Ossian"-Ouverture op.1?

I've never heard any orchestral work by Gade, including the op. 1.  I've
heard a bit of chamber music, however.  It didn't do very much for me, I'm
afraid.  I found it "nice," but that was it.

Steve Schwartz