Today would have been the 250th birthday of Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. We basically consider him one of ours, although Germany and Austria are different countries – our relationship is probably comparable to that of the USA and Canada or something like that. Anyway, Mozart is all over the TV schedule at the moment. My TV is on and I’m listening to a live concert on arte (Franco-German TV channel) from the Berliner Staatsoper (National Opera(house) in Berlin). Someone’s playing a violin concert. Don’t ask me for details. I do like Mozart, though. I have one CD with the piano concert (or concerto?) no. 21 in C major (KV 467) and the piano sonata in A major (KV 331), which includes the pretty famous “Alla turca”. They are played by Mitsuko Uchida and the English Chamber Orchestra. That CD helped me when I was in college because for some reason I was able to concentrate when I was listening to it.
As to Mozart’s other works, I’m not much into opera music (I prefer piano concertos or symphonies), but the melodies from Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) are beautiful, such as the aria of the Königin der Nacht (Queen of the Night).
Mozart is one of my favourites for reading or studying. His work is usually light and pleasant, but not obtrusive.
AntwortenLöschenHowever, I have a friend who studied music--even went to University to study it--and he finds classical music to be distracting, because he knows so much of it. For him, it's like listening to an oldies pop/rock station. Every so often, he'll hear something that will take his focus away from what he is doing because it brings back a memory or a thought.
Interesting (about your friend) ... I think I'd find opera distracting, or Wagner or whatever, but, as a musician on TV said today, Mozart is like champagne. : )
AntwortenLöschen"Mozart fever" has totally hit me now. I listened to an old record that belongs to my mum. On side A was symphony no. 41 and on side B symphony no. 35. But either because the record was about 40 years old or because our record player won't make it much longer, it all sounded pretty awful, you know, distorted or grinding or something. On Friday, another Mozart concert was on TV and Lang Lang, a Chinese pianist, played symphony no. 40 in g minor. The beginning is very famous and I like the symphony and I found we've got it on CD in a box set I bought very cheaply years ago.