Mozart

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Karl Henning

Quote from: Scion7 on August 30, 2015, 05:44:36 AM
Doubt it.  Voltaire was reviled by much of the population - steeped in the 'ancien regime' - Mozart was no social revolutionary in the way that even Beethoven moderately was.

True enough.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Karl Henning

Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on August 31, 2015, 04:07:09 AM
Your unwillingness to forgive aside, I find Candide and its evil fun to be a remarkable little book. There are many Pococurantes in this world.

Yes, kind of a pocket-bucket-list-rant-picaresque  8)
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Jaakko Keskinen

To Voltaire's credit, didn't he fight for some of the most basic human rights that we today take as granted? Of course, those rights weren't achieved during his lifetime, but at least the guy tried to make a difference.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

Jo498

He was a brilliant writer and an important thinker, sure (and some more things as well, e.g. popularizer of Newtonian mechanics in France). He still was a smug bastard to make such cheap fun of a genius like Leibniz.

As Voltaire was very strongly against established religion but still some kind of Deist, I really do doubt that the Freemason Mozart of 1790 would have been so strongly opposed to him.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Karl Henning

Quote from: Jo498 on August 31, 2015, 06:16:18 AM
He was a brilliant writer and an important thinker, sure (and some more things as well, e.g. popularizer of Newtonian mechanics in France). He still was a smug bastard to make such cheap fun of a genius like Leibniz.

As Voltaire was very strongly against established religion but still some kind of Deist, I really do doubt that the Freemason Mozart of 1790 would have been so strongly opposed to him.

I dunno;  if one is not much in sympathy with a gadfly, the latter can come off as singularly repulsive  8)
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Wakefield

Quote from: Jo498 on August 30, 2015, 05:05:59 AM
Mozart was only 22 in 1778 and probably sucking up to his father a little here, to ascertain the old man that he would not stray from traditional christianity. But while Mozart remained a Catholic for all his life he also become a freemason, so he was not traditionalist and would probably not have spoken so ill of Voltaire later on. (IMO, Voltaire was quite brilliant but also a smug bastard and I cannot really forgive him making such evil fun of a far greater mind, Leibniz, whom he pictured as Doctor Pangloss in Candide.)

Apparently Voltaire wasn't so wrong about Leibniz because, as Bertrand Russell proved in A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz, he hid the best of his philosophy because of commercial considerations. So to speak, his "optimism" was far a better business than his real, more obscure and finally hidden philosophy. Therefore, the criticism of Voltaire, making fun of Leibniz, isn't totally undeserved. 
"One of the greatest misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowards. They complain, keep quiet, dine and forget."
-- Voltaire

mc ukrneal

What are your most joyful Mozart discs (excluding voices)?
Be kind to your fellow posters!!

Ken B

#947
Quote from: mc ukrneal on September 01, 2015, 05:21:43 PM
What are your most joyful Mozart discs (excluding voices)?

It's odd, considering how Mozart I have heard, that I have no clear answer to this. The piano concerti, but I know of a lot of great recordings. If I had to pick just one of those,  Kempff doing 23. I like Bohm's symphony 40.

Update. I might have misread. I like the Bohm for being so angst ridden!

Ken B

Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on August 31, 2015, 04:07:09 AM
Your unwillingness to forgive aside, I find Candide and its evil fun to be a remarkable little book.

And it's frickin' hilarious.

Mandryka

#949
Quote from: mc ukrneal on September 01, 2015, 05:21:43 PM
What are your most joyful Mozart discs (excluding voices)?

The 14th piano concerto with Bilson and Gardiner, the final movement.
The wedding march from Figaro.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen


Karl Henning

Vn Cti

[asin]B00274T95E[/asin]
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot


Turner

#953
A recent arrival - the complete / almost complete early symphonies (=37 1/4) with Harnoncourt (7CD). And a delightful surprise; hadn´t thought I´d be enjoying these small works so much - but the playing can´t really be more varied, pompous and engaged, for sure.

Samples/recordings by Arigoni, Linden, Böhm and Leinsdorf from their complete sets I heard didn´t quite contain this.

Am a big fan of Harnoncourt´s grand, late Mozart symphonies with the Concertgebouw too.




Eli

Quote from: mc ukrneal on September 01, 2015, 05:21:43 PM
What are your most joyful Mozart discs (excluding voices)?

It might be light music but this disk is an absolute delight.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/mozart-serenata-notturna-3-divertimenti-mw0001378077

Eli

Quote from: Jo498 on August 31, 2015, 06:16:18 AM
He was a brilliant writer and an important thinker, sure (and some more things as well, e.g. popularizer of Newtonian mechanics in France). He still was a smug bastard to make such cheap fun of a genius like Leibniz.

As Voltaire was very strongly against established religion but still some kind of Deist, I really do doubt that the Freemason Mozart of 1790 would have been so strongly opposed to him.

My question is apart from music, how much of an intellectual was Mozart?

Jo498

Mozart was not an intellectual but neither was he only interested in music and ignorant of everything else.

We know that he joined the freemasons and wrote music for them, that he probably generally supported the reforms of Emperor Joseph and like many Germans/Austrians seems to have been horrified by the French revolution but supportive of "enlightened" social reforms (e.g. cutting back privileges of nobility and Church) without completely overturning the "old order".
If you can get hold of Volkmar Braunbehrens' book on Mozart (it's "Mozart in Wien" in German, not sure about translations) it has something about these topics, e.g. which non-music books had been in Mozart's possession etc.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal


Gurn Blanston

Quote from: jlaurson on March 09, 2016, 02:52:48 PM

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Keyboard Sonatas vol.8 & 9, Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano), (Harmonia Mundi)

There have been fortepianists before Ronald Brautigam and Kristian Bezuidenhout upon whose shoulders those two might be said to stand. But none had managed to so convincingly bring the fortepiano into the mainstream.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/03/09/classical-cd-of-the-week-mozart-sonatas-for-fortepiano/


Nice review, Jens. I liked to see the mention of his Sturm und Drang disk, which is, I would say, an underground classic. It is strange, in a way, that the only mentions I seem to see of this series have been negative, and not many of those either. Not really sure why that is, I have liked everything I've heard from Bezuidenhout. That said, I would greatly enjoy to see/hear his take on Haydn.

8)
Visit my Haydn blog: HaydnSeek

Haydn: that genius of vulgar music who induces an inordinate thirst for beer - Mily Balakirev (1860)

Archaic Torso of Apollo

Quote from: Gurn Blanston on March 09, 2016, 04:12:58 PM
I liked to see the mention of his Sturm und Drang disk, which is, I would say, an underground classic.

I have that disc! I got it a couple years ago when I was learning to play K. 540 on the piano. It's quite fascinating.
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach