Dear Mimi think-positive Ezust, who positively wrote:

>Trashing Mozart isn't one of the eight great paths to enlightenment.
>And I adore Mozart's viola quintets so much that when I hear someone put
>down Wolfie I just have to laugh at the trasher.  What a misguided person.
>>Poor thing.  I'm much too polite to do my laughing in public, usually, but
>in this case I'm making an exception.  Reading so much amazing trashing in
>two days in a row does that to me.  Mozart a disappointment? Hold my sides,
>please.  They shake, they split.  How novel.  how RADICAL

It may not be one of the eight great path to enlightenment, but it sure
can take a load off your back.  When I was a kid I used to wonder, why are
they always playing Mozart at concerts while I'm always playing Haydn on
my phonograph? I was a child prodigy on the phonograph.  And the "thought
police" actually made me believe momentarily that Haydn was just a hack.
Mozart was the true genius.  Then I figured, "well I have a choice.  I can
pretend I am part of the cognoscenti or I can be labeled "the village
idiot" and do my thing, which was to extol Haydn at every opportunity.
But that always brought the reaction, "you can't be serious.  Wait 'til
you grow up.  Then you'll have the emotional equipment to see."

You know, when left to my devices, I did wake up.  I grew up, too, and
without listening to Mozart as brain food.  One day I was listening to one
of Mozart's middle piano concerti and I said to myself (since by this point
no one was talking to me), "hey this is as much fun as Haydn and every bit
as inventive." So now I can enjoy both worlds.  When I want a brain-teasing
symphony or quartet or piano sonata from that age, I go to Haydn.  When I
want the greatest piano concerti ever written I go to Mozart.  When I want
to hear fun opera, I go to Weber, Freischutz or Oberon and sometimes The
Magic Flute.  But then there was Smetana....But that's for another time.

Sorry, there is no Nielsen lurking in this post.

Andrew E. Carlan