Alan Barber
Yes, very much so. I wonder, did he ever listen to Mozart? To paraphrase Karl Barth, "When the angels make music to praise God, they play Bach. When they make music for their own joy, they play Mozart."
deathtokoalas
heaven's been in need of regime change for an eternity...
Elliott Jang
Beethoven is a distant 2nd to Mozart in regards to composing
Alex Prendergast
Whew! Thank goodness that's settled!
Patera Milenko
No, you can't really compare the two. They are both brilliant beyond time.
deathtokoalas
bah. beethoven was a creative genius. mozart just knew how to follow all the stupid rules. the result is that beethoven has aged splendidly, while mozart just comes off as a conforming tool.
to put it another way: mozart is merely a period composer. beethoven is truly timeless.
MrEitinha
"You're a Mozart fan!" - Norman Stansfield
toni8675
Any simple comparison between the two of them is just plain childish. Mozart died way younger (and when he died, he already started composing more mature, experimented with chromatic harmony beyond others of his time, and added serious ployphony to his last symphonies), Beethoven lost his hearing, not to mention the 14 years between their births... No one knows how many more things Mozart would have accomplished had he lived as much as Beethoven. There are simply too many variables, that's why you just can't really compare the two of them...
deathtokoalas
it's a very easy comparison: beethoven is exciting, mozart is boring. i see no reason to think mozart would have gained a deeper sense of artistry had he lived longer. what he lacked wasn't age, but emotional attachment to his writing.
toni8675
If the requiem, symphony no. 40, the piano concerto no. 23 (adagio) etc. lack emotional attachment, then I'm curious what's your definition of attachement...
deathtokoalas
well, the comparison is to beethoven; pick something, little of what he did was schmaltzy (with the exception of this piece). but rachmaninov is the apex, specifically his 2nd and 3rd concertos.
almost all of mozart's pieces sound like solutions to engineering problems, those ones included. perfect? sure: perfectly trite.
obligatory "influential on song of the day" post.
the topic matter is considerably less intense, but i borrowed the drum loop (figuratively, not sampled) for the song of the day ("too cold").
