Kim Patrick Clow: >Sussmayer's completion is full of musical blunders. Even Mozart called >him an idiot while he was alive, and judging from other pieces of music >he wrote, he was pretty much a hack. It's also full of musical felicities, such as the Benedictus and the Agnus Dei. You know, I keep hearing about these blunders, and the ones that keep getting brought up are simply departures from statistical norms. As for the other pieces, I agree, but I would say that lightning struck at least once. Furthermore, Mozart's widow was the one who denigrated Suessmayr, as part of her marketing strategy. I wouldn't trust anything she said. She also, if I recall correctly, destroyed all the original sketches to hinder discovery as to who composed what. >There are some studies that indicate that the themes from the portions >that Sussmayer completed are Mozart. These could be based on the missing >sketches that Mozart's widow mentioned. Actually, scholars (don't ask me how) have determined who worked on what movements. This is reflected in the Baerenreiter edition of the score. Steve Schwartz