Monday 15 May 2023

Mozart: his face, his mind

I recently bought myself, with some Amazon vouchers I had received, a bust of Mozart. I have no piano to put it on, but he's my favourite composer and all that, so that's a very good reason. This bust, which you see in the picture, a rather classy, classic and classical depiction of the Maestro. There are plenty of portraits like this, in sculpture or in paintings: Mozart is handsome, manly, dignified, looking rather regal, if not like some kind of Greek god or hero. At least he smiles. Even though I like the bust (after all, I bought it) I don't think it is faithful at all to Wolferl's true appearance and demeanor. Or that it represents his psyche very much at all. He just looks too serious. The real Mozart was playful, humorous, child-like in many ways. And his music reflected that. I am sharing as an example and a demonstration this video of the Rondo of his Horn Concerto Number 1. The notes you can see on top of the video were for his friend horn player Joseph Leutgeb. So yes, like I said, playful and a bit of a clown. So tell me what you think of the music, the annotations and the portrait.

1 comment:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Hilarious video! Didn't know about the notes before! This makes me think of the goofy portrayal of Mozart in "Amadeus."