What is your favorite Mozart symphony?

Hi Schubert - Brahms is an interesting case. Unlike most composers, one must remember that he literally tore up half of what he wrote. So yes, what is left is the very well crafted stuff. He was very careful to destroy anything he did which he felt was not his best effort. Imagine his output being doubled! Surely a great deal of it was still very fine music.

And by the way, I have said the same thing you did many times about my written communication. There's a reason I am a musician and not a writer. I suspect you are right that we agree more than it appears.

I am going to paraphrase what you said, and let me know if it is indeed what you meant. I think another way to say what you are saying would be that with Beethoven and Bach you hear the effort which went into the composition, whereas with Mozart it seems so effortless. This is sometimes the case with Schubert as well, definitely in the songs (though not at all with the symphonies or piano music or opera). This makes your comparison (the placing of Schubert with Mozart, I mean) make a little more sense to me, if I have indeed hit on what you mean.

This is of course not to say that it was actually effortless for Mozart, as the movie Amadeus implies. It is very well documented that he worked his butt off, in fact probably even harder than Bach and Beethoven. His output certainly would have at least equalled Bach's had he lived as long. I have said here before that I consider Mozart's the most tragic early death in the entire history of the arts.

To Lowrider,

The only recording I have for fair comparison would be the Requiem KV. 626 by Bohm recorded in 1971. The first one was released in 1983 as single CD and the second one was released earlier this year under the collection titled "Karl Bohm: Late Recording". By my personal perception, the newly release represents more live "music hall" experience which some claim it's fake.

Again it depends on your personal taste. Tone comes first as Furtwangler once commended on the topic of performance. For my daughter (a conservatory student)Bosendorfer piano sounds dull but for me Steinway piano sounds bright.

Hope it helps.

Yes, you have said what I mean but it seems apparent only
to SERIOUS listeners and musicians . Only a complete fool would think Mozart did not work to his limit, the difference is he could make his work sound as it just fell whole from heaven .
Schubert did not always have that, but his originality is overwhelming ,to me anyway . I've read long tomes
comparing Mozart and Schubert outputs to age 31 where acknowledged masterworks count fell in Schuberts favor .
At 8 years old the top teacher in Wein threw up his hands
saying he was learning more from the boy than he from him.
I've heart several of the worlds most famous pianists praise Schubert's late Pn. Sonatas to the skies, one said
to me personally they were the greatest in the canon .



I don't know if the most tragic early demise was Schubert
or Mozart but for sure they are the top two disasters .

Hi Schubert - let me clarify something I said. I did not mean that Schubert's Piano Sonatas are not great - they are! I meant that they do not show that seeming ease of composition we are speaking of with Mozart, and with Schubert's own songs. Schubert's late piano works are very complex in a similar manner to Bach. It takes a great deal of concentration for even a very serious listener to follow them, so in this sense the craft is very obvious, though of course fantastic. Hope this makes sense - it is really only in his song composition that Schubert has that "falling from Heaven" quality you describe, though personally I think that is a poor description which belittles the composer and his craft. That is one of the only bad things about the movie Amadeus, that it perpetuates this notion that God did it, not Mozart.

When speaking of his music the one that "falls from heaven" to me at least, is Symphonia Concertante K364 for Violin/Viola written when he was 23 years old. The interplay between the violin and viola in the 2nd movement is just brilliant, I never tire listening to this piece.