Rock Me Amadeus

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the greatest composers of all time, so much so they made an Oscar-winning film about it His tunes have inspired countless other musicians over the years, and recitals of his works always draw big crowds. He's as deserving of a thread as Beethoven was, so guess what? He's a few hints:

Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Mozart - Overture to The Marriage of Figaro

Mozart - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Mozart - 40th Symphony

Falco - Rock Me Amadeus

Maybe not had the same sort of sampling effect on pop music, but still a legend

In Search of Mozart
The prodigious son of a talented & famous violinist, with a talented older sister, too. Their parents toured them around palaces and the like. But they seemed to get stuck in Salzburg. He toured with his mother as chaperone, reaching Paris, where she died. His father blamed him for it. A somewhat anal tone to correspondence was explained and forgiven, but I didn't notice any mention of Salieri at all. But then, it did end rather abruptly.

Kent Nagano's Classical Masterpieces
A series of concerts with the Deutscher Symphony Orchestra at the Berlin Philharmonic from 2006. First up was Mozart's Symphony #41 aka 'Jupiter Symphony', which was nicely done.

Mozart In Prague: Rolando Villazon on Don Giovanni
Amusing Italian tenor explores the story of the opera's opening night, with various academics and singers. He concludes by staging a part-recreation of the finale, which is quite impressive. The moral of the story, as true then as now, is: no matter how drunk you get, don't invite a statue to dinner, or suffer the consequences.

Mozart by Zukerman
From the Hercules Hall, Munich, in 1973, with the English Chamber Orchestra, Pinchas himself conducted & played violin on 'Rondo in C, K373', 'the 4th Violin Concerto in D, K218' and 'the 29th Symphony in A, K201'. Impressive stuff.

The Joy Of Mozart
Tom Service, regular BBC Proms presenter, tries to cut through the marketing image of Mozart, to the real musician, talking to conductors, performers and journalists. Since Mozart ultimate resides in an unmarked grave, it brings a note of realism to the over-blown PR image. The wonder of the K Numbers needs more thought, though.

Opera Stories: La Clemenza Di Tito
A complex tale put on at the Vienna State Opera. Mozart wrote it in 17 days to mark someone's coronation. The "clemency of Titus" is the crux of the conclusion. Didn't really draw me in.

BBC Proms: Mozart's Symphony #41 in C Major aka 'Jupiter'
This ran over half an hour. Both were performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as conducted by Thomas Sondergord.

Mozart's London Odyssey
Historian Lucy Worsley covered the year or so that the Mozart family spent in London, where Wolfgang wrote his 1st Symphony, but the public were harder to win over than was expected, even after King George III gave his approval.

BBC Proms: Faure's Requiem
A bit of Mozart and Haydn, but a Faure triple bill as the main event. Alas, the first, the Pavanne is the more famous and more interesting than the final Requiem. Never mind.

BBC Proms: Mozart From Memory
A short performance of Mozart's final Symphony, Jupiter, which was padded out by a long section for the audience highlighting the musical motifs in the finale. Nice tune, though.

BBC Proms: Mozart Requiem
Ivan Fischer conducted the Budapest Festival Orchestra through three Mozart pieces, finishing with the eponymous requiem. Good stuff.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto #20 in D Minor, K466
Piano-playing conductor Daniel Barenboim has clearly driven much material over the years, but alas no clues when this series was done. By tackling the series individually, there will hopefully be much more to come. He played and conducted, and very nice it sounded too.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto #21 in C Major, K467
Dan Barenboim again, with the Berlin Philharmoniker. Don't know how long this series will be, but everything about it works.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto #22 in E Fla Major K482
Yup, andother in this series with the same people in the same place, though presumably on different days.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto #23 A Major K488
Danny Barenboim again, with the same orchestra in the same location as the previous editions. Still impressive work.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto #24 in C Minor, K491
Yup, continuing this well-put-together series.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto #25 C Major, KV503
Sooner or later they must run out of this series, but I'm enjoying them while they last.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto #26 in B Major, K537
Yup.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto #27 in B Flat Major, KV595
And again. No idea how many editions there will be in this series, or when it was made, but it's still top quality stuff.

Aled Jones - Fy Nhaith Glasurol
A Welsh language series purportedly about classical music in Germany, but really more of a vague tourist effort, in truth. In this ep, our hero visits Regensburg, where Joseph Haydn once visited and where Mozart's librettist Emanuel Shikander lived. He also went to Bamberg, which has its own symphony orchestra, and Nuremberg, where Durer is buried and which is renowned for its gingerbread and nuts. Oh, and for the Nazi rallies and trials. The next episode apparently features Wagner. Clearly, I will watch any old rubbish

Argerich & Barenboim - Piano Duos at the Teatro Colon
Daniel joins old friend Martha in their hometown of Buenos Aires to deliver a program of Mozart, Schubert and Stravinsky. Owing to a power cut, I missed the start which listed whatever Mozart piece they did, annoyingly. They did encores of pieces by Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Guastavino and Milhaud too. Impressive stuff it all was.

BBC Proms '17: Haitink's Mozart
88 year old Bernard Haitink conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Europe through the Prague Symphony and 3rd Violin Concerto by Mozart, followed in the 2nd half by Schumann's 2nd Symphony, and an encore from Mendelssohn. Impressive stuff.

BBC Proms '17: Dvorak and Bartok
Karina Cannelakis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra through pieces by Mazzoli, Bartok's 2nd Piano Concerto (with a Mozart encore from soloist Jeremy Denk), and finally Dvorak's 8th Symphony.

Aled Jones - Fy Nhaith Glasurol
Vienna - the Welsh wonder went to the capital of Austria on his great Euro-odyssey, where he discussed the Strausses, the Blue Danube waltz, Tales from the Vienna Woods, Mozart of course, the Marriage of Figaro, Schubert, the Schonbrunn Palace, and the Habsburg dynasty. He also checked in on Melk and Linz, where Mozart gave his 1st public concert at the age of 6, and considered Bruckner.

Aled Jones - Fy Nhaith Glasurol
Salzburg - the birthplace of Mozart, who started on the piano at 3, composing at 5 and touring at 7. Aled also considered the Sound of Music, since the Von Trapps were connected with the salty city. The building in which WAM was born became a museum to him in 1880, and many original manuscripts and instruments are kept there. The city is also notable for an Easter Festival, started in 1967 by von Karajan, held at Mozart Hall. Tourism is now a big deal there. Mozart left Salzburg for Vienna, of course, and died at just 35.

BBC Proms 2018: Mozart & Mahler
Thomas Dausgaard conducted the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra through a programme previously done by Leonard Bernstein on his Proms debut in 1987, and redone here as part of marking his centenary (there was also a version of On The Town, which I passed on). Here was Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, with Annelin van Mauwe doing the honours, and then Mahler's 5th Symphony to follow. So a simple bill for a change.

Sons of Vienna - The Untold Story
A 6-part series looking at the major classical composers associated with this Austrian city. The opener looked at the friendship between the prolific prodigy Mozart and "Papa" Joseph Haydn.

BBC Proms 2019: Schumann, Schoenberg & Mozart
Proms season again, this was Omer Meir Wellber conducting the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra through a special selection for this Jewish conductor. The Mozart was his 15th Piano Concerto, which opened. A premiere from Ben Haim's 1st Symphony followed, then after the interval there were works by Schoenberg and Schumann's 4th Symphony.

BBC Proms 2019: Mozart's Requiem
Natalie Stutzmann conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales through a program which included Brahms' Tragic Overture and extracts from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, before the main event with Mozart's Requiem in D Minor.

The South Bank Show Originals: Jonathan Miller - Anatomy of an Opera
In 1978, the series looked at his work on a version of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Miller is always great value , and the English National Opera provided interesting foils, or even clay. Sir John Tomlinson, who played Figaro, spoke about it in the 2019 bits, which was a neat choice of contributor.

Requiem
A 2-part series looking at how this form of music evolved from plainsong into polyphony, and how the likes of Schumann, Brahms, and Verdi all made great versions, not to mention Mozart (his final opus before his early death) and latterly Britten.

BBC Proms 2019: Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
Long Yu conducted the Proms debut of the SSO, and they did some Rachmaninov, some Qiang Chen, Mozart's 23rd Piano Concerto (with guest soloist Eric Lu) and finished with an encore blending a classic Chinese tune with Hey Jude, to crowd delight.

BBC Proms 2019: Proms in the Park
Stephen Ball conducted the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at this show in Glasgow. Jamie MacDougall MC'd guests including headliner Barbara Dickson, and a welter of music, from the likes of Debussy, Puccini, Vivaldi, and of course Mozart, in a segment from Cosi Fan Tutte.

Last Night of the Proms ('20)
The curtailed season closed with a modified take on the usual OTT crap. As ever the first half was the stronger, with Dalia Stasevsky conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra through a setlist with opened with the Overture from Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, included a world premiere from Andrea Tarrodi, a Proms premiere from Sibelius, and then the more traditional stuff which had raised calls of nationalism etc How long with it run in 2021?

You wait a year for a post & then suddenly...

LSO: Bernard Haitink conducts Mozart and Bruckner
Unsure what year this was. They were at the Barbican Centre anyway. The Bruckner symphony was longer than the piano concerto from Mozart.