Thanks to Norman Lebrecht for informing us that Mozart is "the superstore wallpaper of classical music," and that he led a "mediocre life." He also rages against the people behind the Mozart Effect and those who had the good fiduciary sense to put Mozart's mug on Viennese chocolate—the Mozartkugel. As if Boulez would be responsible for the societal ills that result from hucksters putting his headshot on a plastic-wrapped Parisian croissant 200 years from now.
I could get all upset and debunk Lebrecht's usual less-than-airtight arguments. Mozart pandered to his bosses? Not really, and there was no other way to make a living as a composer in that day other than paying heed to the powers-that-were. His music is "dissonance-free" and "failed to take music one step forward"? Anyone who fails to notice the genius of the combination of three distinct dances during the dinner scene of Don Giovanni is a rube and no music critic, and the same goes for someone who misses the contrapuntal dissonance set up by the competing lines in the third-movement scherzo of the G minor symphony.
But really, all this is of a piece with Lebrecht's predicably ill-informed contrarian nature. Anyone who compares the coming flood of Mozart performances with a "term in Guantanamo Bay," (not noting, by the way, that no one actually serves a term there, but rather an open-ended sentence) should have their stereo and press tickets taken away and revoked.
He points out that Shostakovich is getting the shaft in this, that his centenary is being ignored. Shostakovich's birthday is in September, which puts it in line to be celebrated next concert season, not this one. Hard to believe that such an eagle-eyed observer could've missed that fact.
As a palate-cleanser, here's Paul Griffiths' first sentence on Mozart from The Penguin Companion to Classical Music: "The first wonder is his music's naturalness, the way melodies flow like water, and whole movements (which may be over 20 minutes long in the case of opera finales) unfold with every harmonic turn placed at the right moment, to leave, at the end, a sense of perfect finish and unity."
