Word: mozarts
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...Mozart has not always been so universally popular. Though he was famous during childhood as a keyboard virtuoso, his myriad compositions were often regarded as dense and difficult ("Too many notes, my dear Mozart," Emperor Joseph II supposedly said). Musicians, however, recognized his greatness. "I love Mozart as the musical Christ," said Tchaikovsky. "The most tremendous genius raised Mozart above all masters," said Wagner, "in all centuries and in all the arts...
...Romantics imposed their own contradictory misjudgments. While many considered some of Mozart's greatest works admirably demonic (e.g. Don - Giovanni), most smiled on his sonatas as works of tinkly charm appropriate for young ladies to perform in the parlor. That view of Mozart as a divinely inspired but childlike innocent endured well into this century. Only a few enthusiasts such as Sir Thomas Beecham and Artur Schnabel kept emphasizing the depth and drama in his later symphonies and piano works ("Too easy for students and too difficult for artists," said Schnabel). Serious scholarship helped; so did the revival of period...
...course, eminently lovable: melodious, harmonious, beautiful, an escape from all the ills that flesh is heir to. "The only music yet written that would not sound out of place in the mouth of God," George Bernard Shaw once wrote. But each age hears the Mozart it wants to hear, and today's audiences enjoy not only the exquisite serenity of this music but also its emotions, its subtlety and wit. Indeed, Peter Sellars' "modernized" stagings of the operas demonstrate a very contemporary sense of anxiety and unhappiness. Still, the music remains joyous and so eminently worth celebrating...
...bicentennial celebrations are not all musical. The British, for example, are staging a weekend of billiards tournaments to commemorate Mozart's fondness for planning carom shots while he composed music, and vice versa. Japanese entrepreneurs have already started selling Mozart dolls, Mozart watches, even Mozart sake manufactured to the strains of Mozart's music. "Mozart is suitable because it is gentle and smooth, not peculiar or chaotic," says the distiller. Mozart tours are selling well, and France is operating a Mozart train to several cities that the composer visited. The Austrians have put Mozart's picture on their...
...Mozart's native Salzburg is the high shrine of Mozartism. The festivities started Jan. 2, when the celebrated Salzburg Marionettes presented the first of the seven Mozart operas that the 78-year-old troupe has in its repertoire. It will tour Europe this spring and the U.S. in November. The Landestheater offers a new Magic Flute as well as a restaging of Peter Shaffer's popular but preposterous Amadeus. For those seeking knowledge, an international symposium will provide 130 scholarly papers in four languages...