# Mozart Won Me Over Last Night!



## starthrower

I've never been a Mozart fan, but I heard his Adagio and Rondo for Glass & Quartet on the radio last night, and I really enjoyed it! I suppose it's considered a minor work? I've never heard of it before.


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## Ravndal

Congrats! Still trying to get there my self. Im @ Sonata 11 & 12


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## starthrower

BTW, that clip has to be an edited version. It seemed more like 10 minutes on the radio.


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## Kieran

Yeah, it's about 10 minutes. A small Mozart piece from near the end of his storied life, but isn't it so restrained and beautiful? Far as I know, the girl who it was composed for was blind...


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## Kieran

Ravndal said:


> Congrats! Still trying to get there my self. Im @ Sonata 11 & 12


Hey Ravndel,

His sonatas are a great way to get into old Wolgangerl. Depending on where you're coming from musically, I'd also recommend #14, in C-minor, aka K457.

And K570.

And K576.

And...


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## Hausmusik

starthrower said:


> I've never been a Mozart fan, but I heard his Adagio and Rondo for Glass & Quartet on the radio last night, and I really enjoyed it!


After languishing in obscurity for centuries, Mozart is finally getting the recognition he deserves!


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## starthrower

^^^^
From me, anyway!


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## PetrB

starthrower said:


> ^^^^
> From me, anyway!


You will be noted in history:

Bach: Mendelssohn
Mozart: Starthrower


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## Mahlerian

PetrB said:


> You will be noted in history:
> 
> Bach: Mendelssohn
> Mozart: Starthrower


You mean:

Mendelssohn:Bach::Starthrower:Mozart


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## PetrB

Mahlerian said:


> You mean:
> 
> Mendelssohn:Bach::Starthrower:Mozart


Yes, yes. Of course! (And... congratulations on your new found historic prestige 

The full-length Glass Harmonica (Armonica) piece:





The Glass Armonica was invented by... Ta Da! ... Ben Franklin.
https://www.google.com/search?q=glass+armonica&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=VF3&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=xDIpUbzpK5S8qAH9koGgAw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=536

There are a few pieces for it by Beethoven as well.

It was the first choice of instrument for the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" until Tchaikovsky, in Paris and visiting the Pleyel showroom, was introduced to the Celeste, freshly invented and still under wraps (he asked for and got an 'exclusive' that the instrument would not be made known to any others until it premiered in the Nutcracker.)

The instrument is one of the thirteen instruments of the original orchestration of Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals -- Aquarium."
[Two pianos, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, flute (doubling piccolo), clarinet C (alternating B♭), glass harmonica, xylophone]


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## StlukesguildOhio

The Glass Harmonica also lends an ethereal... unhinged element to the Mad Scene from _Lucia di Lammermoor_.


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## Weston

Gah! I had to stop the video, not because of Mozart, but because the slight squeak when a note starts reminds me of stepping barefoot on earthworms after a summer rain. Horripilating.


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## userfume

There's no way anyone can _not_ like Mozart after hearing this


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## quack

Mozart convinced me some time ago now but this rather unMozartian piece reminded me once more just today.


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## Quartetfore

"all good things come to those who wait"


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## trazom

quack said:


> Mozart convinced me some time ago now but this rather unMozartian piece reminded me once more just today.


What makes it unMozartian? If anything, that's Mozart when he's not even trying: He composed that piece in less than an hour, by his own admission.


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## quack

I'm not sure it just didn't strike me as particularly like Mozart on first listen, seemed like something from much later in the romantic era. That long relatively simple adagio, less of the usual roccoco flourishes. It came as a surprise after listening to a couple of his other other violin sonatas. It was actually the Richter/Kagan recording not that one, but I couldn't find it own it's own on youtube. Interesting I didn't know anything of the piece's history or that Mozart chucked it out so effortlessly, but it doesn't seem, at least to me to fit the typical Mozart pattern.


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## trazom

quack said:


> I'm not sure it just didn't strike me as particularly like Mozart on first listen, seemed like something from much later in the romantic era. That long relatively simple adagio, less of the usual roccoco flourishes. It came as a surprise after listening to a couple of his other other violin sonatas. It was actually the Richter/Kagan recording not that one, but I couldn't find it own it's own on youtube. Interesting I didn't know anything of the piece's history or that Mozart chucked it out so effortlessly, but it doesn't seem, at least to me to fit the typical Mozart pattern.


I actually thought the same thing when exploring Mozart's violin sonatas. Some of the piano writing seems heavier in the slower movements, particularly the K.481(Einstein said it was "Beethovenian"), which sounds vastly different from his piano sonatas.


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## violadude

The first Mozart piece that won me over was the 21st piano concerto.


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## GodNickSatan

Mozart didn't win me over until I started listening to his piano concertos, and then I could see what everyone else was talking about.


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## Sonata

His operas were what initially did it for me, which is interesting because opera is a rather minor listening interest of mine. I go through hot and cold periods for him though. When I'm in the Mozart mood I listen to him a lot, when I'm in a cold period, I might not listen to him for a few months. And I never quite know when I'm going to get obsessed or need a break from him. Interesting, that.


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## kv466

Good to hear, Thrower!

The 600's are magnificent works that are in little way _minor_, rather simply unpopular.


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## jurianbai

the longest Mozart CD I listen is this. 









nine months during the egg incubation of my second daughter, the disc been under arrested in cd player by the mother. that's quite won me over.


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## worov

Mozart won over me last night when I listened to this :


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## Guest

In 1984 I saw the movie Amadeus. Besides being a wonderfully enthralling movie that piqued my interest in Mozart's creative persona, it had such great respect for Mozart's music that I had to hear more. Soon after that I got my first Compact Disc player and one of my early purchases was K299, the Concerto for Flute and Harp, with Jean-Pierre Rampal and the English Chamber Orchestra. From that point on I was hooked on Mozart.


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## Schubussy

trazom said:


> What makes it unMozartian? If anything, that's Mozart when he's not even trying: He composed that piece in less than an hour, by his own admission.




It'd take me an hour to write the first bar.


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## vertigo

Kieran said:


> Yeah, it's about 10 minutes. A small Mozart piece from near the end of his storied life, but isn't it so restrained and beautiful? Far as I know,* the girl who it was composed for was blind*...


Would you mind elaborating on that Kieran?


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## Kieran

vertigo said:


> Would you mind elaborating on that Kieran?


Hi vertigo,

Sorry, I only saw this now! Mozart composed two works for the glass harmonica, K356, which was a solo work, and the glass harmonica quintet mentioned above, K617. Both were composed for the blind performer, Maria Anna Kirchgassner. I've put the longer version of K617 in the link, I'm more familiar with this and this version from YouTube lasts 10'41".

By the way, I don't know about you or anyone else, but to me, K356 sounds quite eerie!

EDIT: There's a little more about these glass harmonica works here, from the ever-reliable Dennis Pajot...


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## Flamme

Eine kleine Nachtmusic, Cosi Fan Tutte for me...


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## vertigo

Kieran said:


> Hi vertigo,
> 
> Sorry, I only saw this now! Mozart composed two works for the glass harmonica, K356, which was a solo work, and the glass harmonica quintet mentioned above, K617. Both were composed for the blind performer, Maria Anna Kirchgassner. I've put the longer version of K617 in the link, I'm more familiar with this and this version from YouTube lasts 10'41".
> 
> By the way, I don't know about you or anyone else, but to me, K356 sounds quite eerie!
> 
> EDIT: There's a little more about these glass harmonica works here, from the ever-reliable Dennis Pajot...


Thanks! I'll check them out...


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