Playlist: Mozart's Birthday Picks
Compiled By: Listener Directed Productions, Inc.
Celebrate Mozart’s 254th birthday (Jan. 27th) with these programs. Other Mozart programming is available by searching "Mozart."
K is for Koechel: The Story Behind Those Mozart Numbers
From Georgia Public Broadcasting | 00:58:31
Looking for a way to answer one of the most asked question in classical music, while listening to and enjoying some of the best music ever written?
"K is for Koechel: The Story Behind Those Mozart Numbers" goes beyond the numbers and provides a ton of provocative background information and insight into Mozart and his compositional process. Myths and Mozart myth-makers are busted, and the often used Mozart descriptor "genius" is properly defined and put into perspective. (He's still a genius, by the way.)
Beyond the insight, history and well researched speculation, the program insightfully recognizes what "makes it all matter: Mozart's music." And your host/producer Sarah Zaslaw, joined by her father (and Mozart scholar) Professor Neal Zaslaw, wisely and cleverly keeps everything from crossing over into the dark side of the classical music education vortex. Zaslaw's bit at the beginning on how to pronounce and spell Koechel is one of several high points.
Not just for Classical: For all stations dedicated to and embracing the "lifelong learning" component of Public Radio’s Core Values, "K is for Koechel” is definitely worth considering. (FYI: Professor Zaslaw spent January 09 traveling the European continent in his quest for more Koechel information and insight.)
RN Documentary: A Dutch Divertimento in six movements
From Radio Netherlands Worldwide | Part of the RN Documentaries series | 00:29:30
A Dutch Divertimento-in-Six-Movements (29:30)
After a slow start, this Radio Netherlands documentary offers a wonderful “first hand telling” or an on location recounting of the Mozart family trip to the Netherlands in 1765.
Here’s an especially compelling and entertaining history and insight into the incredible accomplishments of the 9 and 10 year old Mozart – from the exploitive freak-of-musical- nature show tour his own father produced and promoted to the astounding original and progressive music he wrote at the time.
The documentary traces the handprints Mozart left and the footsteps he took during that 1765 family sojourn – from the famous organ he played in Haarlem to the Court of Princess Caroline where, and for whom, Mozart likely wrote his first aria.
The documentary is bogged down by at times by the earlier mentioned slow start, some one-too-many voices busy-ness and one section dealing more with Leopold (Mozart’s father). A “Dutch Divertimento-in-Six-Movements” overcomes these distractions through use of strong history-story telling from Dutch musicians who know the difference between “Mozart the Myth” and “Mozart the Unbelievable but True.”
