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| Collage by Rose. |
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| Joseph Haydn |
Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn to Leopold Mozart (Mozart’s father): "Before God and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer I know, either personally or by name."
German composer Richard Wagner: "The most tremendous genius raised Mozart above all masters, in all centuries and in all the arts."
Czech composer Antonín Dvořák: "Mozart is sweet sunshine."
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| Antonín Dvořák |
German composer Johannes Brahms: "If we cannot write with the beauty of Mozart, let us at least try to write with his purity.”
Polish composer Frédéric Chopin: "Mozart encompasses the entire domain of musical creation."
- (Chopin, when speaking of his own death): "Play Mozart in memory of me."
Austrian composer Franz Schubert: "What a picture of a better world you have given us, Mozart!"
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| Franz Schubert |
French composer Camille Saint-Saëns: “Give Mozart a fairy tale and he will create without effort an immortal masterpiece.”
Italian composer Gioachino Rossini: “Beethoven I take twice a week, Haydn four times, Mozart everyday!”
German composer Richard Strauss: “The most perfect melodic shapes are found in Mozart; he has the lightness of touch which is the true objective ...”
Russian composer Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky: “Mozart is the highest, the culminating point that beauty has obtained in the sphere of music.”
Adoration for Mozart wasn’t limited only to iconic composers – or to Europe - high ranking (and arguably as equally famous) members of other artistic intelligentsia – from literary geniuses to famous scientific minds, musicians and conductors, all shared a love for the maestro’s illustrious music:
German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Mozart is a human incarnation of the divine force of creation…a phenomenon like Mozart remains an inexplicable thing.”
Hungarian conductor Georg Solti: “Mozart makes you believe in God because it cannot be by chance that such a phenomenon arrives into this world and leaves such an unbounded number of unparalleled masterpieces.”
German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein: “Mozart’s music was so pure that it seemed to have been ever-present in the universe, waiting to be discovered by the master.”
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| Physicist Albert Einstein considered Mozart "the greatest composer who ever lived" |
American violinist and conductor Isaac Stern: “Mozart's music is like an X-ray of your soul - it shows what is there, and what isn't.”
American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein: "Mozart’s music is constantly escaping
from its frame, because it cannot be contained in it."
I will close this post with a modern missive: many composers have waxed poetic on the topic of Mozart - Aaron Copland, in his essay "At The Thought of Mozart" muses upon those who idolized the maestro. Read Copland's thought provoking thinkpiece here.Enjoy below one of my favorite arias by Herr Mozart, “Porgi Amor” from the late maestro’s epic masterpiece “Le Nozze di Figaro,” as sung by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa in her much lauded role as Countess Rosina Almaviva, performed here at Glyndebourne Festival, 1973. The role of the Countess helped launch the kiwi soprano’s megalithic career after she first appeared as Almaviva at the SantaFe Opera and at Covent Garden in 1971, in which she is said to have “knocked the place flat” after delivering to delighted audiences this beautifully sensitive aria:
Herr Mozart is an Unraveling Musical Myths composer favorite, and as such, is heavily featured on this blog.
Peruse the Mozart Archives link below to learn more about this highly influential composer:
-Rose.
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