Mozart played his Magic Flute today!

Yup, I was listening.. it was a great performance!

I missed it.

Great, Lynn--it was amazing wasn't it?

Connie---No-o-o-o-o-o! Sorry you missed it.

Jude, I've never experienced The Magic Flute, although it is on my list of things-to-do-when-I-have-time-and-remember. I enjoy Mozart very much, but I am more of a romantic period person. I'm glad you (and Lynn!) enjoyed it! I did enjoy all the festivities around the actual birth date... fun stuff on WFMT, the local classical station here. If I had been able to get the opera, I would have turned it on as I've been pounding away at the keyboard all day and listening to background music anyway.
It sounds like there are some interesting theories about Wolfie's death... I'd never heard of them! Fun stuff to look into! Thanks for the tips!

Thanks, Jude. I LOVE Mozart! He was an absolute genius!

Thanks, Michael. When you're swamped in and working with music your ears probably need a break more than something else to listen to (I've hung around too many musicians in my time, I guess!)

Joanne, he was he was! Glad we can agree to agree on Mozart! ;)

Mozart is my favorite composer, so when I was asked what song I would like to learn on piano, I asked for something of his. As a result, I can play Papageno's Magic Melody on piano -- one of four songs I can play on that instrument, but by far my favorite.

As to his death? Since we'll never know with certainty, I figure it's better to celebrate how musically rich the world became in just the few years he was here to compose for us. (I wonder if anyone will be singing Achy-Breaky Heart 250 years from now?)

We were in Vienna last August, in the midst of the Mozart Mania gripping Europe. Went to the State Opera House for an all-Mozart evening...with excerpts from "Flute" as well as "Don," along with movements from symphnonies, etc. Also visited one of his grander residences when he was at the peak of his popularity there. I stood in his bedroom...what a feeling!

Bert, that's amazing--wish I could've tagged along. You avoided all porkchops. I assume! And to hear any part of Don--woo! how intense was that?!

Danielle, his music was my preference for piano lessons too but I was thwarted--it's a long boring story. If you can play Mozart you can play anything, and unlike Wagner, who's better than he sounds, Mozart's short lifespan of music was squooshed into the few years the world had him. And I hope the Achy-Breaky phase is over for us all...not YOU, Danielle...no-o-o-o-o-ooo...!

Thanks, ~juni~ Have you been to Salzburg?

Jude,
Don Giovanni is my favorite opera. I have seen it many times, and know it almost by heart. There is so much wonderful music in it! My wife's fave is the Flute, or 'Die Zauberflaute' as it's called in German.
I played the piano for seven years when I was a kid. The only Mozart piece I can remember was a simplified version of the famous Turkish Rondo from one of his piano sonatas. Mostly, I remember Chopin and some Prokofiev pieces. The rest I've forgotten.

Bert, my lessons all seemed to be primarily Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms...certainly lovely but I wanted the Big M! I love Don Giovanni as well. Do you have any theories about M's demise?

No, everything I have ever read about it said he died of typhoid...a common cause of death back then due to contaminated water. I saw 'Amadeus' and of course, that was a spoof, although I loved the music in it. I particularly liked the opening scenes that used the first movement of the 'Little G minor' 25th symphony...another of my favorites.

Typhoid was rampant then for sure. His letter to his wife at the time did speak of pork chops though and he may be, even after all these years, his own best witness, Bert! Have you read '1791: Mozart's Last Year'?

The Amadeus film was given to me as a gift shortly after it came out on VHS (pre-DVD, of course!) and I have watched it many times--primarily for the music. One of my favorite parts is "Salieri" describing the clarinet 'floating above'...as the music begins with the clarinet floating above...so cool and well-done! Using snowy Prague really captured the mood of the times also.

Mozart wrote a lot of wonderful music for the clarinet...for his friend, Anton Stadler.
I particularly like the quintet, K581. I have two recordings, but my favorite is with David Shifrin and Chamber Music Northwest.

No, Jude, I don't know that book. I'll check it out. Thanks.

I absolute love Mozart in particular the Piano sonata in c major (allegro). I have his collection that called "The Wonder Of Mozart" the triangle series, done with the greats composers.

Hanny,
I suggest that you get a recording of the Rondo in A minor K 511. Every time I hear this piece, it brings tears to my eyes. And then, I read that he wrote it after his mother died, and I understood.

Thank you Bert I'll do that.

Dear Jude I come late but I am here! I heard for the first time live the Magic flute in the theatre where it was first presented, in Vienna. it was in the late eighties and was wonderful. I come to confirm that Salieri did not murder him and I am also sorry that such a good film passed that terrible message. it is a lie first propagated by the other wise estimated poet Pushkin who was a russian freemason. Recently the freemasons apologise and take back these acusations, for which also the tbirth town of Salieri in Italy has vividly protested. We do not know of what he died; perhaps of exhaustion and bad medicin administration combined with alcohol. It remains a mystery and a great suspicion about the circumstances of his death. The reason for such mystery is down to his burial. It has been set up a burial ceremony with an empty coffin while his body was thrown into a large comunal grave for the poor. Who and why wound like his body to disapear together with the evidences of death causes? Another of tehse Vienese intrigues, like the death of Royal Prince Rudolf, the son of Sissy. There are also serious alegations that he ahs been assasinated by the praussian party. Prince Rudolf was against the involvement of the Austrians in the Praussian war, but his father was with teh war party. At which point the praussians informed the Austrian Emperor that his son has to be eliminated. So, his own father new what was going to happen, but he put la raison d'etat first.
Mozart belonged to a revolutionary masonic lodge which after a while was closed down by the major masons. It was related to the french revolutionaries. So, at a certain point Mozart did not have allies among the powerful and perhpas he ahd also serious enemies. Magic flut was also seen as a critic to the regime of Maria Theresia, and it was not a play just for the nobility; it was palyd fruther on in a large theatre with garden where people would bring their lunch with. There were other similar plays by Mozart and Sicanender that were agitating the people of Vienna. So Mozart, a popular superstar, an agent provocateur, had to go.... Sicanender was declared mad - another way to eliminate oponents, as usual ....