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Mozartiana

Add this gem to the list of books that you can give to friends who listen to Mozart. And buy an extra copy for your shelf. Be warned: It won't stay there. Mozartiana, a collection of "notes, quotes and anecdotes," is a deceptively quick read that turns out to be the kind of book that you won't be able to put down. If you're like me, you'll read it cover to cover in a one sitting.

In putting together his collection, Solman rounds up the usual anecdotes, including some of rather dubious pedigree. (Emperor Joseph most likely never made that remark about "too many notes" in Die Entfürhung aus dem Serail, K. 384. Nonetheless, it's here.)

But while his sources skew understandably toward the musical world (and there are entire chapters devoted to quotes by composers and performers), there are many surprising contributors including actor F. Murray Abraham (who played Salieri in the film Amadeus), politician (and basketball star) Bill Bradley, and artist Paul Klee.

Not everyone is an admirer. For example, listen to this quote attributed to Frederick Delius: "If a man tells me he likes Mozart, I know in advance that he is a bad musician." And this, from Glenn Gould: "Mozart was a bad composer who died too late rather than too early." (Pianist's envy, perhaps?)

But the whiners are in the extreme minority. (In fact, most all of them are represented here.) Not surprisingly, most of the bulk of this small book is made up of those who -- over the past two hundred years -- have greatly admired the composer and his music.

Just about everyone, it seems, has a reason to like Mozart. A final example:

"I have been told that a young would-be composer wrote to Mozart, asking advice as to how to compose a symphony. Mozart responded that a symphony was a complex and demanding musical form and that it would be better to start with something simpler. The young man protested. 'But Herr Mozart, you wrote symphonies when you were younger than I am now.'

"And Mozart replied, 'I never asked how.'

"That is my favorite Mozart story." -- Isaac Asimov