Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 (1st, 2nd, 3rd movements), with Beethoven's cadenzas

“Ah, we shall never be able to do anything like this!” — Ludwig van Beethoven, attending a rehearsal of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24

Some say that you can hear the seeds of La Marseillaise, and the famous fate motif of Beethoven's 5th, in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25. I'll let you decide!


Laudate Dominum

Flute and Harp Concerto (2nd movement)

“This bright, light, beautiful day will remain with me for the rest of my life. The magical tones of Mozart's music still resound softly from afar. How incredibly powerful and yet so gentle it was, etched deep, deep in my heart by Schlesinger’s masterful playing. Thus do these beautiful imprints, which no time or circumstances can erase, and which have a beneficent effect on our very existence, remain in our souls. In the darkness of this life they show us a light, bright, beautiful distance for which we can hope with confidence. Oh Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, oh how infinitely many comforting perceptions of a brighter, better life have you imprinted on our souls!” — Franz Schubert's diary

Violin Sonata No. 33 (2nd movement)


Qui Tollis


“To my dear friend Haydn,
A father who had resolved to send his children out into the great world took it to be his duty to confide them to the protection and guidance of a very celebrated Man, especially when the latter by good fortune was at the same time his best Friend. Here they are then, O great Man and my dearest Friend, these six children of mine. They are, it is true, the fruit of a long and laborious endeavour, yet the hope inspired in me by several Friends that it may be at least partly compensated encourages me, and I flatter myself that this offspring will serve to afford me some solace one day. You yourself, dearest friend, told me of your satisfaction with them during your last Visit to this Capital. [...]” — Mozart's dedication to Haydn of his set of six string quartets, of which the last one starts in a rather special way


“What a loss to the musical world!” — Mozart in a letter to his father, on the death of J. C. Bach (youngest son of the more famous Bach), who taught Mozart when he was much younger. Later that year Mozart made a touching quotation of one of J. C. Bach's overtures in the second movement of his Piano Concerto No. 12


Mozart and Handel


“I never lay myself down to sleep without recollecting that perhaps |: young though I may be :| I may no longer exist the next day” — Mozart's last surviving letter to his father before his father's death in 1787

Maurerische Trauermusik


“If you are poor, but skilful, then arm yourself with patience, and work hard; if you do not become rich, you do at least remain a skilful man. If you are a donkey, but rich, then make use of your advantage, be lazy; if you do not become poor, you do at least remain a donkey.” — from a pamphlet of ‘proverbs’ written by Mozart for a ball in 1786


Mozart wrote nearly a thousand instrumental movements and stand-alone pieces, in some key signatures more often than others. There is exactly one key, F# minor, in which he wrote exactly one movement



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