I suspect that it is probably sacrilegious or even blasphemous to suggest such a thing. I suppose it's random how a cult becomes a religion. Can you imagine if all the world adopted Mozart as their religion, what a beautiful place the world would be?
More seriously, and without going into the depths of theological debate, I think that to listen to Mozart is to be convinced that there is a Greater Being in the universe. I don't think I have ever heard a piece of music by Mozart that is bad, and I would say that just about everything - certainly from the mature period - has the capacity to be extraordinarily moving. Is it the tunes, is it the harmonies? Tunes are just a random selection of notes. Harmony is just mathematics, you know. I was so brilliant at O Level Harmony.
So, how can these random notes and application of advanced calculus become magic? Trying to list favourite pieces is a challenge. I'll include that and that, but then maybe I should I list that, and it ends up being il catalogo e' questo.
So, here is the catalogue of Mozart I really like, even more than the rest:
- L� ci darem la mano, from Don Giovanni - I particularly love a version I have on video of The Gold and Silver gala from Covent Garden where Plácido Domingo and Susan Graham sing it very very very seductively.
- Andante from Piano Concerto #21 in C _ amongst other versions in my collection is this one - track five.
- Clarinet Quintet - we did the first two movements as one of our set pieces for O Level - studying the score, and also looking into the life and work of Mozart. It was a fabulous way to revise. Basically. learn your notes with the music playing, then go into the exam and sing it yourself, and the facts come tumbling out. Guaranteed A grade. That is the reason I got into it. But I continue to like it because of its perfect structure, simple melodies
- Agnus Dei from Coronation Mass K317 (just before I became a councillor, a member of the electorate rang me up; this was playing and she said, 'oh no, I've disturbed you when you've just got out of the bath.' It didn't sound weird.)
- Laudate Dominum from Vesperae Solennes de Confessore K317 (the 'Amen ' alone is better than 99.99999999% of music).
I am publishing this now, even though there is much more Mozart to come, but I have recently changed my tactics to blog every disc, rather than just select the crème de la crème
I am currently listening to the highlights of Die Zauberflüte, which I bought a few years ago - I decided that I was going to improve my mind and get highlights of every opera on CD, but then I got side-tracked by a lack of time and money, the reason I had originally decided on highlights, rather than full...! A very weird opera - all based on Masonic symbolism and supposedly set in ancient Egypt. but for all its weirdness, the music is sublime.
