MPR: About Us: 250 Years of Mozart

As part of Minnesota Public Radio's celebration of 250 years of Mozart we asked, "How has Mozart's music touched your life?" and you shared. Read about people's favorite pieces and how Mozart's music has affected their lives!

How has Mozart's music affected you?
I went to many operas when I was in elementary school. I acquired a liking of Mozart because it is the most calming music to listen to. I have a very stressful job that unfortunately requires me to listen to my clients yell and scream. But when I listen to Mozart's concerts, I hear no yelling and screaming. I am a much calmer person, and it helps me get through my day.

Tonya Sherrod
West Hartford, CT

What is your favorite Mozart piece?
Piano concerto No. 23, K.488

Why?
The middle and final movements of this work reflect two extremes of human existence. The slow movement, a lament of inestimable depth and piercing beauty, gives us a fleeting glimpse of Mozart's profoundly tragic life in Vienna. The final movement, in magnificent contrast, shows the complete and utter triumph of joy and creative abandon over such circumstances.

How has Mozart's music affected you?
Mozart had the unique and uncanny ability to manifest in music the range of human emotions, from tumult and despair to the sublime and exultant. His later works, for example "The Magic Flute," the Requiem and the Clarinet Concerto, are able to combine all of these elements and present to me a unified and profoundly satisfying perspective that joy and harmony will always triumph.

Jeff Ulku
Orono, MN

What is your favorite Mozart piece?
Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major

Why?
It is an extremely beautiful piece that is both showy and intimate. Violin concertos are meant to display the virtuosic talents of the soloist, but they often do this at the expense of intimacy. This violin concerto has various moments when the passionate nature of the violin is brought out, making it one of my absolute favorites.

How has Mozart's music affected you?
I find Mozart's music uniquely appealing. In all of his pieces I find beautiful themes that usually have a lighthearted tone. While I am not always in the mood to listen to pieces by Beethoven or Tchaikovsky, Mozart's music is always welcome. His works have a permeating quality that I cannot resist.

Mark Lanari
St. Paul, MN

What is your favorite Mozart piece?
"Ave Verum"

Why?
It's rich and serene, wonderful to sing and soothing to listen to.

How has Mozart's music affected you?
Mozart has many moods and it's hard to select just one "favorite." His music has been with me since before I can remember. My mother's birthday (in 1910) is Mozart's birthday, so in my childhood we always celebrated the birthdays jointly by playing his music on LP records.

When I was nine, our fourth-grade class learned and sang words to an excerpt from his Clarinet Concerto:

"Hear the echoing tones of flute and clarinet, As they answer each other playing a duet. They are playing a tune we never shall forget, Made by Mozart just for the flute and clarinet."

We sang it in two parts, mimicking the echoes in the original.

My father was a great fan of Alicia de la Rocha; I believe we had a LP collection of her recordings of all 16 piano sonatas. When I was 13, I practiced and played the first movement of my father's favorite, the F major Sonata (K. 333), for his birthday. I later performed this entire sonata as part of my intermediate piano certificate recital.

Our family also owned LP recordings of the complete set of Mozart horn concertos performed by Dennis Brain. My favorite rendition of any of his horn concertos, however, will always be the Flanders and Swan take-off from their album, "At the Drop of Another Hat," often played by WFMT, especially on April 1st.

As an adult I love Mozart in any medium -- choral, orchestral, operatic, chamber ensemble, keyboard, and even the outrageously funny movie, "Amadeus."

Long live Mozart!

Betty Vos
Mason City, IA

What is your favorite Mozart piece?
"Bei Mannern, welche Liebe fuhlen", Act I , scene II "The Magic Flute"

Why?
An unlikely couple, the beautiful princess Pamina and the absurd birdman Papagano, share a most lovely and tender duet in exaltation of love. Simple as a lullaby, its message is powerful: love is a common denominator for all.

How has Mozart's music affected you?
It has become like a close friend. We are growing old together (with my wife, Lyn, of course). His music is always there for me.

Warren T. Sherman
Danbury, CT

What is your favorite Mozart piece?
Symphony No. 29

Why?
I love the liveliness of it. It just feels like an energy boost!

How has Mozart's music affected you?
I knew that I was scheduled for open heart surgery, but they wanted me to have an angiogram first. As I was laying on a gurney and being wheeled into the cath lab at John Nassef Heart Hospital, the wonderful orderly was kindly telling me what was ahead. I responded by saying I wanted them to know two things: I was a chicken, and I wanted Mozart.

Much to my amazement, the staff went to the CD player in the cath lab (Who knew?!), and put on a CD of "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik." I will never forget my astonishment and their delight as Mozart calmed me during my angiogram.

Carol Baker
St. Paul, MN

What is your favorite Mozart piece?
"Laudate Dominum"

Why?
While it is not all that complex, Laudate Dominum is the perfect balance of melody, harmony and polyphony between the orchestra, choir and soloist. If you were to change a single note, you would be removing perfection.

How has Mozart's music affected you?
I am a true believer in the "Mozart Effect." I began listening to Mozart in high school and never wrote another paper in college or law school without listening to Mozart while I was writing. I am not a scientist, nor do I claim to be one, but there is something about Mozart's music that not only clears my mind of outside thoughts, but also allows me to focus on the task at hand. I have found the same effect from other composers such as Bach and Beethoven, but my "go-to" disk whenever a paper is due is still Mozart's Requiem.

Brian Toay
Fargo, ND

What is your favorite Mozart piece?
"Exsultate Jubilate" (sung especially well by Judith Blegen)

Why?
In a lonely time in my life during which I faced divorce, single fatherhood, and unhappy work circumstances, luck was with me one day when I heard "Exsultate Jubilate" so beautifully sung by Judith Blegen. Over the next couple months, which included Christmas, I practically wore out this wonderful record. And if ever Wolfgang reached out and touched someone from his place in heaven, it was me! Now, whenever I hear this piece, its infectious joy still scatters the clouds and brings forth a rainbow.

How has Mozart's music affected you?
It reassures my faith in beauty and love in this world.

Jeff Spohn
Minneapolis, MN

What is your favorite Mozart piece?
The Requiem in D minor

Why?
It's extremely powerful and emotional. It makes me cry, yet gives me peace at the same time.

How has Mozart's music affected you?
Mozart's music has made me more thoughtful on many levels. I love to share his music with others and open their eyes to him, especially children.

Ever since I performed his clarinet concerto as a soloist in 1988, I have been intrigued with, in awe of, and, yes, in love with Wolfgang.

Tamara Mayer
St. Peter, MN

What is your favorite Mozart piece?
"Cosi Fan Tutte"

Why?
I sang the role of Despina in this opera 30 years ago in southwest MN. Author Bill Holm was a fellow cast member (Bet you didn't know he could sing!). And it began a love of Mozart and any Mozart cadence.

How has Mozart's music affected you?
Mozart sounds simple yet is extremely complex. He still manages to entertain people with toe tapping melodies over 200 years later, even if classical music is not your preferred listening music choice. The music always sounds happy, and close study reveals the deep, underlying interplay between voices, instruments, musical phrases and Masonic symbolism. I can feel comforted, stimulated, relaxed, satisfied, invigorated, happy, humble, awed or reverent from listening to or playing Mozart. No other composer's music does that for me. That's a big responsibility - even for a Wunderkind. He was a once in a millennium composer.

Lorie Ludwig
St. Anthony, MN

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