Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born two hundred and sixty years ago today. Happy Birthday Wolfgang! On Mozart’s birthday, which is also the birthday of my good friend Yvonne (makes it easy to remember!), I always play a number of his works.
Listening to Mozart is a great way to ease yourself into a hectic day. Today, I was playing a CD of his string quartets, which includes the String Quartet K. 465 in C Major, known as the “Dissonance” because of the unusual way that the piece begins. Towards the end of the disc, I was getting ready to make a video for a blues article I’m working on, and I decided to shoot a quick screen test. I grabbed the guitar and went to play whatever but suddenly, I started playing along to Mozart.
You may notice a picture of Howlin’ Wolf in the corner and that’s where I started but I guess Mozart’s spirit was a little bit stronger at that moment. I hope you will join me in digging some Mozart today. He only lived for thirty-five years but boy did he live. He put about three normal lifetimes in there, and composed a ton of great music. One of my favorites is his Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor – it was a favorite of Beethoven, too – can you imagine Beethoven playing Mozart? Well, you can hear it for yourself because old Ludwig wrote the cadenza used in this performance. That's Mitsuko Uchida conducting and playing. Today must be my lucky day because I've never seen this video before. Another favorite of mine is his Piano Trio in Bb Major K. 502, a piece which a music history professor once gifted to me as an analysis assignment.
If you’ve seen the excellent movie Amadeus enough times and you’re looking to try something different, Ingmar Bergman did a delightful job on a film opera version of The Magic Flute, Mozart’s final opera. Hey, if you wanted to be remembered, would you just go out and compose the most performed opera of all time? All in a day’s work, for Mozart. Happy Birthday!
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