from copenhagen

A concert in the glyptotech, a wonderful sculpture museum

Beethoven and "child mozart" in the glypt

more glypt, this time,Liszt!

and elsewhere in the city....

Carl Nielson (as a naked child on a horse?)

Copenhagen was beautiful, if somewhat, ahem, expensive. I had a great time there.

Mozart for me.

When i am ill, when i am grouchy because of my illness and generally feeling shitty- i like to turn to dear Mozart.

Last Christmas i had a miserable case of food poisoning, and nothing could make me feel better...not even a sip of water for a miserable stomach. No, only Mozart. I listened to the String quartets and piano sonatas. His perfection, his tonic beauty and balance- it was only comfort i could get for the nearly three days of laying on a couch.

Today is a Mozart day. I play it on the piano, i listen to it now, on my laptop. He is comfort in uncomfortable times. It rests in the purity of his tonality, his harmonic/melodic balance. We hear those terms always applied to Mozart: "purity", "perfection", and before i understood tonality this made no sense to me, it just sounded like frivolous 18th century happy-music. I still refuse to give Mozart all the praise some give him, but i wont ever claim he isn’t of enormous value to my life... no matter how grouchy I am.

Leopold Mozart to his son:

"I recommend you to think when at work not only of the musical but also of the unmusical public. You know that for every ten true connoisseurs there are a hundred ignoramuses! Do not neglect the so-called popular,which tickles long ears. "

Wise words. It was true in the concert halls in the 1780s and its still true today. Consequently Wolfy wrote music that would appeal to the popular tastes of his time yet still appeal to the musical public. It goes without saying that this is a very difficult task, and one that is in greater need today than ever before.

I worry that "classical" musicians and composers forget their own obscurity. If one keeps themselves occupied only with fellow musicians and cognoscenti one can easily forget, ignore, and hide away from the general public's apathy. Even John Adams and Phillip Glass, celebrities in the contemporary classical music world, are unknown by the general public, and even by many classical students.

Leopold Mozart's statements are just as relevent as they were then, yet they are 220 + years old. ...Sigh... Some things dont change.