This is one of those subjects that I'll bet a lot of us have sworn we
wouldn't get involved in again, but Joseph Sowa's question about emotion
in Mozart's music seems sincere, and Don Satz's suggestions in response
are not the ones that would first occur to me.

One of Mozart's problems is that after Beethoven the piano sonata, the
symphony, and the string quartet became the vehicles of an instrumental
composer's profoundest thoughts.  Mozart didn't know this was going to
happen and didn't think to put his profoundest thoughts in these forms,
although there are first-rate Mozartian examples in each.

As Alfred Einstein said, the piano concerti are to Mozart what the symphony
is to later composers.  As far as emotion goes, I find the slow movements
(and not just the slow movements) of many of them extremely affecting.  If
I were to pick a favorite, it would be the slow movement in f sharp minor
from the A major piano concerto, K.  488.  This expresses deep melancholy
and sadness as witnessed in a character whose nobility and self-respect
forbids indulging oneself in emotional outburts (I'm talking here about
the character Mozart creates here, not about Mozart himself).  The
restraint here makes the movement to my ears all the more emotionally
powerful, although it may seem reserved to someone for whom, say,
Tchaikovsky (who, of course, idolized Mozart) sets the standard for
emotion in music.  Nevertheless, I find it hard to imagine anyone giving
this movement a chance and not responding to it emotionally.  For more
flamboyant emotional expression one turns to the two minor key piano
concerti (nos.  20 and 24):  although I think that 24 is ultimately the
more powerful work, I would actually recommend the person who feels the
need to be won over to "Mozart as a composer of powerful emotions" to hold
off on 24 and listen to no.  20 in d minor instead.  The nineteenth century
loved it.

For chamber music, I think I would recommend the g minor quintet:  even
though the last movement may seem lightweight, the introduction to that
last movement is immensely sorrowful, and the preceding three movements are
potent indeed, in Mozart's grimmest manner (and while I don't think it the
last word in a comparison among them, I think Mozart conjures up landscapes
far grimmer and bleaker than either Haydn or Beethoven).

Finally, I'd recommend LE NOZZE DI FIGARO.  Shakespeare is often praised
for the breadth of his sympathies, but in all art (and not just music)
Mozart is the one who, it seems to me, can get inside a tremendous range
of characters.  There are so many interesting characters here, so lovingly
depicted, and the whole is so suffused with a human warmth, that if this
doesn't show the emotional depth of Mozart, I don't know what will.
Jealousy, first love, nobility in suffering . . . you name it, here it is,
presented with a sureness of touch that beggars belief.

When Don starts talking about Mozart as the "melody man," I just shake my
head.  For me, Mozart is the composer who knows more emotions than I have
names for, who more than any other composer I know understands how emotions
are most powerfully and subtly represented not as primary colors but as
very complex hues, where, to change the metaphor, the undercurrents always
cause you to reestimate the play of waves on the surface.  Man, I really
love this guy.

Nick
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