Bernard Chasan said:

>Lebrecht's comments are particularly hard to take seriously given Mozart's
>almost symbiotic relationship with Haydn, and his strong influence on
>Beethoven.

I would agree with you that there is not much value in taking Lebrecht's
anti-Mozart statements seriously; but, rather, to use them as a catalyst
to free us from preconceptions.

In fact, one might argue that Mozart used Haydyn by adopting ideas from
him, and Beethoven was not very impressed with Mozart, so might object
to the idea of influence.  Beethoven, in fact, did not seem to have ears
to hear the uniqueness of Mozart's music; in fact, he seemed to prefer
Salieri, who did not move music forward at all.

Pamela McElwain-Brown
www.themagicflute.org