My Favorite Mozart

Mozart was born 259 years ago today. It was a Tuesday (apparently). And it created waves in the musical world that are being felt to this day.

Also, I don’t have a “favorite Mozart.” That’s pretty much an impossible task.

What I do have, though, is something I’ve been streaming at work today in honor of his birthday. (It’s on the short list of “My Favorite Mozarts.” Or at least it would be, if I had one. But I don’t, because that’s impossible. Remember?)

It’s the Andantino from his Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra, K. 299. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and I find myself a little teary-eyed pretty much every time I hear it. The soaring, reaching melody gets me every time.

And it also gives me the opportunity to remind everyone that Mozart didn’t care for the flute, complaining that “you know that I become quite powerless whenever I am obliged to write for an instrument which I cannot bear.” Apparently, loving an instrument is no prerequisite for using it to create transcendent music.

Thanks to harpist Isabelle Moretti and her YouTube channel, here’s a great live recording of Sir Neville Marriner leading the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. (Sir Neville was the baton behind — or before — the version of K. 299 that’s used in Amadeus, though that particular recording features the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, if I recall correctly.)

I’ve linked to the Andantino specifically here, but be sure to give the whole thing a listen when you’re done. It’s fantastic.

One last day-brightening tidbit: When I headed to Google in search of Mozart’s age, I found this. Hard to imagine a better indication of the long-lasting influence he exerted on music than his prominent presence on that list. Talk about a rock star. (Also, yes. I realize that could be a day-darkening tidbit. Glass half-full/half-empty, I say. Also, who’s “The Earth?” What kind of dumb band name is that?)

Attribution(s): “Young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart” by Anonymous (possibly by Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni) is owned by the Mozarteum in Salzburg and licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. The screencap is mine.