# Mozart's most Emotional Pieces



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Obviously symphony 40 and 41 and Requiem Mass. What else?


This is kind of a spin off from my Mozart's Repetitious nature thread. In that thread we began comparing beethoven and mozart, and I've come to the conclusion, lots of Mozart is better as light listening where beethoven is a huge theatrical experience. 

What are Mozart's most emotional pieces that really grab your attention?


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

oh ya, concerto no 21 movement 2 as well.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Fantasia in D Minor as performed by Danill Trifinov (sp?)


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Piano Sonata No. 16 1st movement.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Lucia Popp; "Porgi amor"; Le nozze di Figaro; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


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## Pianistikboy (Mar 18, 2017)

Mozart - Piano Concerto No.23, Mouvement 2 (Adagio). It's also really emotionnal piece for me !!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I think it was wrong of me to say Mozart is lighter listening, it's all moving, but, some of it really is very repetitive. He certainly has some pieces that stand out more and grab you than others, ones that are more theatrical. But, all his music is heavenly. 

I don't think I could see a whole performance of just Mozart music, unless it was composed of all songs I consider to be stand out pieces.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

"What seems especially wonderful to me is Mozart's use of major keys. I know it is usual among Mozartians to praise his use of the minor - to say that he is at his most "sublime" when writing in G minor and his most tragic in D minor - but I find this attitude completely incomprehensible and indeed uncomprehending. One never stops hearing about the tragic nature of the Fortieth Symphony, but to me the Thirty-ninth (in cheerful E flat) is an infinitely greater work, and the last movement of the Forty-first (in grand C, the 'Jupiter') one of the supreme achievements of art.

Nobody has suffered more than Mozart from sentimental musjudgement. The last century dealt with the glory of his composure by calling him 'mellifluous', as if he were really just the Fragonard of music. To the nineteenth century - which prized the _evidence_ of effort - he was not wholly serious; charming of course, but a little lightweight; graceful beyond measure, but lacking in muscle. The truth, of course, is entirely other. Try cutting into Mozart; you will soon find out where the muscle is. It runs right through the tissue of the music, and totally resists the knife." [Peter Shaffer]


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

May be not emotional in a traditional sense of a word " emotional" but for me it's his "Ave verum".


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Animal the Drummer said:


> "What seems especially wonderful to me is Mozart's use of major keys. I know it is usual among Mozartians to praise his use of the minor - to say that he is at his most "sublime" when writing in G minor and his most tragic in D minor - but I find this attitude completely incomprehensible and indeed uncomprehending. One never stops hearing about the tragic nature of the Fortieth Symphony, but to me the Thirty-ninth (in cheerful E flat) is an infinitely greater work, and the last movement of the Forty-first (in grand C, the 'Jupiter') one of the supreme achievements of art.
> 
> Nobody has suffered more than Mozart from sentimental musjudgement. The last century dealt with the glory of his composure by calling him 'mellifluous', as if he were really just the Fragonard of music. To the nineteenth century - which prized the _evidence_ of effort - he was not wholly serious; charming of course, but a little lightweight; graceful beyond measure, but lacking in muscle. The truth, of course, is entirely other. Try cutting into Mozart; you will soon find out where the muscle is. It runs right through the tissue of the music, and totally resists the knife." [Peter Shaffer]


I suppose this thread is asking to show us Mozart's muscle then!


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I guess I'm just making threads trying discover what my stances are. I think I just find Mozart very very repetitive, I can only listen to so much in one sitting. With Beethoven, I never seem to get bored, he is unpredictable and always dramatic. "For this reason, Mozart, you have been chopped", haha! But for real, I'm still not putting one above the other, I can just have to listen to mozart in smaller sittings whereas with Beethoven, I can listen to all day. I still love both very very much though, and still stand by my assertions in the last thread that Mozart comes off as effortless where beethoven comes off as working very hard, and that's not bad. Some people have it easy, some people have to work hard at their craft!


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Well, there are two specific examples just in that quote. If you don't hear it when you listen to Mozart, so be it (and you're not alone in that), but that does not mean it isn't there.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Animal the Drummer said:


> Well, there are two specific examples just in that quote. If you don't hear it when you listen to Mozart, so be it (and you're not alone in that), but that does not mean it isn't there.


And I will listen to those. Of course I've heard the last movement of the Jupiter before...I love it. I love Mozart, I just find him quite repetitive.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Captainnumber36 said:


> And I will listen to those. Of course I've heard the last movement of the Jupiter before...I love it. I love Mozart, I just find him quite repetitive.


I have listened, and still stand by my conclusions stated in an above post.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

I respect that view but I completely disagree with it. Beethoven places more emphasis than Mozart on overt dramatic effects whereas Mozart's techniques, and to some extent the emotions he expresses in them, are sometimes subtler and require more careful, patient listening. I would not agree that that makes his music "repetitive" in the slightest and I most definitely do not have difficulty listening to a lot of his music at one sitting. On the contrary, it's what Shaffer elsewhere in the same article describes as Beethoven's "rigorous turbulence" which would be more likely to wear me out if I were to listen to a great deal of it at once.


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## Schumanniac (Dec 11, 2016)

Pianistikboy said:


> Mozart - Piano Concerto No.23, Mouvement 2 (Adagio). It's also really emotionnal piece for me !!


This one gets my vote too. When the climax comes a minute in with strings and flutes(is it flutes, theres so many wind instruments in classical?), my throat tightens. Never thought wind instruments could express such anguish.

Its exactly the type of open expression i allways wished he produced more of. Cause as it demonstrates he was clearly more than capable of it.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Animal the Drummer said:


> I respect that view but I completely disagree with it. Beethoven places more emphasis than Mozart on overt dramatic effects whereas Mozart's techniques, and to some extent the emotions he expresses in them, are sometimes subtler and require more careful, patient listening. I would not agree that that makes his music "repetitive" in the slightest and I most definitely do not have difficulty listening to a lot of his music at one sitting. On the contrary, it's what Shaffer elsewhere in the same article describes as Beethoven's "rigorous turbulence" which would be more likely to wear me out if I were to listen to a great deal of it at once.


I hear the emotion in his music, I just think he is repetitive which makes it hard to listen to in one sitting. Mozart annoys me after a while...just how I feel, but I respect your views as well.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Schumanniac said:


> This one gets my vote too. When the climax comes a minute in with strings and flutes(is it flutes, theres so many wind instruments in classical?), my throat tightens. Never thought wind instruments could express such anguish.
> 
> Its exactly the type of open expression i allways wished he produced more of. Cause as it demonstrates he was clearly more than capable of it.


Someone posted this version in one of my other threads:


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Mozart Gran Partita 3rd mov Adagio in B flat Major K.361/370a Sir Neville Marriner


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Pugg said:


> Lucia Popp; "Porgi amor"; Le nozze di Figaro; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


I used to be a big fan of opera, but you just have to be in it to enjoy most of it. This is one aria I can enjoy outside of the context of opera. I also find it deeply emotional, much more than Puccini operas. This and one from Don Giovanni by the Joan Sutherland character in Giulini's version.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Phil loves classical said:


> I used to be a big fan of opera, but you just have to be in it to enjoy most of it. This is one aria I can enjoy outside of the context of opera. I also find it deeply emotional, much more than Puccini operas. This and one from Don Giovanni by the Joan Sutherland character in Giulini's version.


That one is very hard to beat, still be around in 50 years from now.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Obviously symphony 40 and 41 and Requiem Mass. What else?
> 
> This is kind of a spin off from my Mozart's Repetitious nature thread. In that thread we began comparing beethoven and mozart, and I've come to the conclusion, lots of Mozart is better as light listening where beethoven is a huge theatrical experience.
> 
> What are Mozart's most emotional pieces that really grab your attention?


I find those works you mentioned to be less emotional than monumental. And if you compare with Beethoven, I agree Beethoven is more monumental (he had to do something, coming after the greatest composer who ever lived at least to that time). I can find both of them, and Schubert, repetitive in some ways actually in their sonata forms, from a modern music standpoint. But in the context of the music, I never find any of their music boring.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> I used to be a big fan of opera, but you just have to be in it to enjoy most of it. This is one aria I can enjoy outside of the context of opera. I also find it deeply emotional, much more than Puccini operas. This and one from Don Giovanni by the Joan Sutherland character in Giulini's version.


This is great! Really love her voice. She is gorgeous as well!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Captainnumber36 said:


> This is great! Really love her voice. She is gorgeous as well!


Alas no longer amongst us.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I thought Lucia Popp was the greatest Queen of the Night. I don't understand why a lot of critics say Rita Streich is.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Pugg said:


> Alas no longer amongst us.


It's ok though, we have all her recordings to remember her by and all the moments we shared with her live if any. She graced us and now left us, but she lives on through her recordings! As Pink Floyd says, "why should I be frightened with dying, we've all got to go sometime".


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> I find those works you mentioned to be less emotional than monumental. And if you compare with Beethoven, I agree Beethoven is more monumental (he had to do something, coming after the greatest composer who ever lived at least to that time). I can find both of them, and Schubert, repetitive in some ways actually in their sonata forms, from a modern music standpoint. But in the context of the music, I never find any of their music boring.


I just need to Mozart in smaller doses, that's all.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OP: Piano Concerto No. 20; String Quintet in G minor; Piano Quartet in G minor; Piano Sonata in A minor; Don Giovanni; Marriage of Figaro; Great Mass in C minor; Ave verum corpus.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Adagio in B minor: 




Might as well be by Schubert.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Captainnumber36 said:


> It's ok though, we have all her recordings to remember her by and all the moments we shared with her live if any. She graced us and now left us, but she lives on through her recordings! As Pink Floyd says, "why should I be frightened with dying, we've all got to go sometime".


Her recording of Mozart Arias is one of the very best, as are Strauss Four last songs.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Pugg said:


> Her recording of Mozart Arias is one of the very best, as are Strauss Four last songs.


Not for any particular reason, but for some reason my curiosity makes we want to ask if you are a man or a woman. I really want to know for some reason, ha!

I think I'm curious b/c I can't tell by the way you post, and usually I can.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Not for any particular reason, but for some reason my curiosity makes we want to ask if you are a man or a woman. I really want to know for some reason, ha!
> 
> I think I'm curious b/c I can't tell by the way you post, and usually I can.


I have nothing to hide:

http://www.talkclassical.com/33557-hello-all.html?highlight=


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Pugg said:


> I have nothing to hide:
> 
> http://www.talkclassical.com/33557-hello-all.html?highlight=


Nice! Nice to get to know you a bit more.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Pugg said:


> I have nothing to hide:
> 
> http://www.talkclassical.com/33557-hello-all.html?highlight=


Bart as in Bartha or Bartholomew?


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> Bart as in Bartha or Bartholomew?


Why does this form require a certain amount of text for each post? All I wanted to post was, :lol: !


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

Try also the slow movements of his Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola and of his piano concerto no. 17 in G.


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Obviously this as well:


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## Norma Skock (Mar 18, 2017)

His Requiem is by far his greatest piece.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

hpowders said:


> OP: Piano Concerto No. 20; String Quintet in G minor; Piano Quartet in G minor; Piano Sonata in A minor; Don Giovanni; Marriage of Figaro; Great Mass in C minor; Ave verum corpus.


Great list! Also, Fantasia in C Minor, K. 475.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Norma Skock said:


> His Requiem is by far his greatest piece.


Yes, if you are referring to Verdi.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I think his K. 475 has been grossly neglected. And his Rondo K. 511 is obviously a huge influence on Chopin.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Animal the Drummer said:


> I respect that view but I completely disagree with it. Beethoven places more emphasis than Mozart on overt dramatic effects whereas Mozart's techniques, and to some extent the emotions he expresses in them, are sometimes subtler and require more careful, patient listening. I would not agree that that makes his music "repetitive" in the slightest and I most definitely do not have difficulty listening to a lot of his music at one sitting. On the contrary, it's what Shaffer elsewhere in the same article describes as Beethoven's "rigorous turbulence" which would be more likely to wear me out if I were to listen to a great deal of it at once.


This sums it up for me. I know a lot of Beethoven admirers have difficulty toning it down a tad, and getting the subtleties in Mozart, just as often for us Mozarteans, the muscular fist-pump style of Luigi comes across as being too overt, too explicit, too sentimental at times. Both of us then miss out on what's great in the other composer.

Mozart's slow sets are generally deemed pretty at first, but further digging beneath the sheen reveals the clown with the tragic face. The slow movement on the 27th piano concerto, for example, is almost a two-finger affair, a slight offering, if you're looking for grand emotions, but grand emotions can be more tragic, the more concealed they seem to be. It took a while for me to get it, but one day that huge ejaculation of strings in the middle, followed by agitation and stress before the music returned to its form - but by then, the whole piece was revealed as something different, something baleful and irreversibly resigned, and I've never listened to it again since without feeling somewhat upset.

Mozart's music isn't defiant, like Romantic composers, or like Beethoven's. He doesn't shake a fist at tragic fate, becoming heroic and uplifting amid the turbulence. In fact, it's no coincidence that Mozart's music has become even more popular after WW2, since his music is most likely the most most apt response - musically - to the ultimate horrors we seen then. I say this not to trivialise in any way the terrible things that happened in that war. But his music captures something inevitably fatalistic in human nature - as if angels are weeping at our fate, to use a well-worn cliche when it comes to Wolfgang.

And he does inspire a lot of well-worn cliches.

But I'd encourage the OP to persevere, because beneath the sense of "repetition" (which we can get from all composers in some sense), and perceived "lightness", there are great depths, great soul, and immense architectural structures which hold strong and shine, and express the human condition better than anyone else, maybe, except Shakespeare, Homer, blokes like this...


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## lluissineu (Dec 27, 2016)

violin conc n 3 & 5.

Piano conc n 20, 24, 27.

Requiem, coronation, spatzen and great masses.

Symph. 21, 25, 36 & 39.

Magic Flute, Don Giovanni.

Horn concs., clarinet conc.... Love Mozart.


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## lluissineu (Dec 27, 2016)

*But I'd encourage the OP to persevere, because beneath the sense of "repetition" (which we can get from all composers in some sense), and perceived "lightness", there are great depths, great soul, and immense architectural structures which hold strong and shine, and express the human condition better than anyone else, maybe, except Shakespeare, Homer, blokes like this...*

Great, absolutely agreed, what a wonderful post Kieran!!!


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Mozart's violin sonata No. 21 in e is pretty emotional at times and I believe he wrote it right after his mother died, leaving him alone as they were traveling together on one of his tours across Europe.


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## Fugue Meister (Jul 5, 2014)

Also this piece he wrote for Ben Franklin's newly invented glass haromonica, it's one of the last pieces he wrote and as are many of the the pieces finished in the last 3 months of his life, it has a quiet melancholy to it.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Fugue Meister said:


> Also this piece he wrote for Ben Franklin's newly invented glass haromonica, it's one of the last pieces he wrote and as are many of the the pieces finished in the last 3 months of his life, it has a quiet melancholy to it.


Really liked this. Perhaps I should check out more of his later works!


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

So many choices, so many emotions. My choice is the 2nd movement of the Clarinet Concerto in A major K.622. So deep and thoughtful, many emotions colors yet simple, peaceful, elegant and even a sense of regret. It seems that Mozart knew that it is one of his final compositions and his days were limited. The music is very much the words from Mozart's soul. When one approach the end his life, the words tend to be kind, deep, generous and longing. Wonderful piece!


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)




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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

There's a wide range of emotion displayed in the works of all great composers. Whether the emotion conveyed is the actual emotion of the composer when the piece was written, is hard to gauge without documented evidence provided by the composer.
Knowing this, what I consider to be the most emotional, is probably insignificant and not of much use to anyone. :tiphat:


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

Olga Jegunova - W.A. Mozart: Piano Sonata No 11 in A - Major, K.331 (300i)

Well played. Makes me fall in love with this sonata again. Excellent touch, timing and beautiful tone color. Well structured phrasing and articulation. In short, many, many emotion colors.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)




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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I'm listening to Symphony #29, very refined, great composition. I think I just need to explore later Mozart more! This CD I have has Symphony 29 and 25 on it along with Clarinet Concerto K 622.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I'm listening to Symphony #29, very refined, great composition. I think I just need to explore later Mozart more! This CD I have has Symphony 29 and 25 on it along with Clarinet Concerto K 622.


Yeah, I think you misjudged Mozart a little before.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Phil loves classical said:


> Yeah, I think you misjudged Mozart a little before.


Definitely! But Haydn has certainly left a big first impression on me, no doubt about that!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The second movement of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin & Viola is a Mozart emotional peak.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Phil loves classical said:


> Yeah, I think you misjudged Mozart a little before.


We al do that from time to time.


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