On Tue, 12 Jan 1999 16:59:10 -0800, Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Mozart certainly didn't know the London Symphonies, the last piano
>trios, the final quartets - because he was dead.
>

Precisely!  I have not quite finished reading all posts on this slightly weird thread, but almost nobody mentioned the fact that living longer, these composers would have met new geniuses.  Mozart would have heard of Schubert, Chopin, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Berwald.  Schubert would have heard of Bruckner, maybe.  Chopin would have heard of Brahms, more of Liszt and Wagner, and so on.  For many composers, even the greatest, this really counts.

Best wishes,

Thanh-Tam Le