https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYSG8AQO3tw
Beethoven Violin Concerto.
I’ve loved Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik since I was a teen. Not just because it’s a fantastic piece of music, but also for the whimsical name (“A little night music” - not even a title, just a description of the composition). It’s like if Einstein had labeled his spiralback notebook on General Relativity something like, “Study Hall Math Doodles.”
My son says, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Beethoven’s seventh symphony (but he thinks all of them are great), and Beethoven’s Rage Over A Lost Penny.
Son reminded me of Rage Over A Lost Penny and I’ll pick that as my favorite, although I recall being disappointed when I found out that’s not what Beethoven himself named the piece.
As an amateur musician (viola), I find that the harder Mozart pieces like his later symphonies are more difficult to play really well than most Beethoven. Someone once said “playing Mozart is like playing naked”, because every single line is transparent and exposed, you there is nowhere to hide.
With Beethoven, you can often hide in the ensemble because there is so much going on that no one can pick out what you are individually playing.
That said, Mozart doesn’t come close to the depth of emotion and profundity found in Beethoven’s music. It’s a real shame Mozart died at such a young age and never reached the maturity musically that Beethoven did.
My vote is for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, the greatest piece of Western music ever written.
I hardly ever listen to classical music any more. In college I listened to Alfred Bendel playing Mozart piano concertos all the time. I do like Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, The Magic Flute is one of the few operas I love. On the other hand, I do think Fur Elise is almost the perfect love poem in music, and I’ve never gotten tired of the Ninth Symphony.
Michael Pisaro
Beethoven’s 9th symphony does it for me every time 