Mozart Quotations

I'm not a culture snob. So while, of course, I think the Mozart 'Requiem' or, say, Beethoven's 'Ninth' are some of the greatest works of art in the history of humankind, that's not to say the Beatles or Queen or Simon and Garfunkel aren't brilliant, beautiful, important works of art that should be sung without a sense of irony.

Most people in the Western world grow up with the received wisdom that Mozart was a genius. But few people necessarily know why. More than anyone else, he captured this something which is the human condition, the fine line that we all constantly dance between joy and pain, between absolute happiness and absolute heartbreak.

When we hear some beautiful piece of Mozart or admire a wonderful building, we suddenly become present in ourselves. That's unusual nowadays because dishevelment and distraction have become an art form.

The only thing that interests me in music is to be able to reach into the, let's call it, 'collective unconscious' of what is noblest in the human spirit, the way you find in the music of Mozart and Beethoven and Verdi that wonderful quality that not a note can be changed.

I can't cut off an ear everyday. Do the Van Gogh here and the Mozart there. Anyway it's exhausting enough always having to check up on what one is really doing!.

I'm trying to learn classical piano, Mozart and Beethoven and stuff. I took lessons when I was younger and now I sort of sight read the music and play it by ear. It's fun. It takes up a lot of time. I practice a couple of hours a day, but I find it soothing.

Mozart makes us care about people in flashes of lightning.

In the olden days, I believe Mozart also improvised on piano, but somehow in the last 200 years, the whole training of Western classical music - they don't read between the lines, they just read the lines.

Mozart is always a bit of a challenge - you know, even though it is often given to very young singers, it is actually the most complicated to sing in many instances.

Before I was 5, I did have a lot of time on my hands. I had no job and really no career, and I spent an awful lot of time listening to records. It was more the classical ones, really - Prokofiev, and I think there was some Mozart in there, and more impressionistic composers like Delius.

When I went to college at the University of Nevada back in Las Vegas, I got tricked into singing in choir. The first thing we did was the Mozart 'Requiem.' That was the piece that changed my life overnight.

It is sobering to consider that when Mozart was my age he had already been dead for a year.

Mozart had a tremendously fertile and creative ear for a catchy tune.

We've tried to combine ongoing things, such as the annual Scholarship Concert, into the Mozart concerts.

Mozart wrote some of the most famous operas of all time; Mozart wrote some of the most famous Masses of all time, strong quartets, symphonies.

Mozart was the first major composer who created his own career as an independent businessman, an independent entrepreneur.

Mozart was one of those composers who was successful in all genres, and we wanted to show the diversity of his music.

Mozart was born Mozart. Charlie Parker was born Charlie Parker.

Mozart started when he was five years old. If you are good, you are good. God gave Freddy the gift to play soccer. If he is prepared mentally and physically, nobody will stop him.

Mozart never watched Baby Mozart , and Einstein never watched Baby Einstein , ... We're subject to the demographic targeting of very enterprising companies.

Mozart isn't just pretty and isn't just emotional. There's another layer of inspiration which we all need.

Mozart is clearly one of the most important composers, and a 250th is important to memorialize. The year-round event should help to introduce many who do not know the wide variety of his music to aspects they are likely to enjoy. This event ('Mozart: 2006') will open new doors for many.

Mozart had something of a schizophrenic personality, and his music is sort of great for people with Attention Deficit Disorder -it's exciting, it keeps your attention, and just when you've gotten used to it, he changes it a bit.

My first three manuscripts were epic fantasy - like high fantasy - and then the fourth one was a historical fantasy about Mozart as a child. I still have a soft spot for that one!

Plenty of people detested Michael Jackson before his death wiped away the world's collective memory. Timberlake was originally dismissed as just another boy-bander. Legions have joined in a 'Hate Anne Hathaway' movement. Elvis, the Rolling Stones, Kristen Bell, even Mozart had haters.

Portraying Mozart is a scary task. Whenever I'm asked to portray actual historic figures, it comes with extra accountability. Not just to your director and playwright, but to the man himself and the beloved persona that the public forms.

I was still taking piano lessons up until 18 months ago. If I had one thing I could add to my very full calendar, it would be that. That's one of my personal goals because it helps balance all parts of your life, and I really get a lot of enjoyment out of playing Mozart and Beethoven.

If they had Mozart today, they couldn't work with him, although he was a very adaptable man.

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 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.'

I'd like see an ad with somebody listening to Mozart and reading Milton or Shakespeare.

I could talk about him all day. He's the Mozart of Cuban music,

I love classical. I have a lot of, like, Bach and Mozart and stuff. Then you flip on over, and I've got, like, Kanye West and, you know, just a bunch of - I am very eclectic. I love every sort of music.

We are fans of Mozart and Beethoven, as well 'South Park' and Borat. We believe that we can attract many people who eschew the serious ambiance of concert halls and don't go to classical music concerts because of such reasons. However, there is a 'serious humor' on the stage: funny and ridiculous. That is important!

The Pacific Mozart Chorale in Berkeley asked four different composers (the other three are John Adams, Meredith Monk and David Lang) to fill in what Mozart left out,

Whoever succeeds him will be compared to Welch. He's kind of like Henry Ford, or Mozart in music.

We're already getting excited about that. And seeing that it's the Mozart year, it is only fitting.

When I was a kid, I won a contest and played a Mozart concerto with the Chicago Symphony, and I've written some movie scores, and I've been listening to orchestral music for years.

Traditionally you would hear Mozart as a warm-up; you start with a piece of Mozart and go somewhere else.

We often forget about creativity with a little 'c'. You don't have to be Mozart or Einstein. Creativity can just be about the day-to-day stuff that makes life better.

We wouldn't use this to play a Mozart quartet; that wouldn't be appropriate. But this is mixed media.

Whenever I view success, I'm dressed as Mozart on an island.

To me, the Mozart Effect is much bigger. It's more of the universal effects of what sound and music can do to improve our lives.

When you get up, the night and day is a contradiction. But you get up at 4 A.M. That first blush of blue is where the night and day are trying to find harmony with each other. Harmony is the notes that Mozart didn't give you, but somehow the contradiction of his notes suggest that. All contradictions of his notes suggest the harmony.

We had some trepidation whether or not we wanted to do it because we had been in the mode of doing the other. Once we got into the very first rehearsal, it reminded us how good Mozart was, how funny and how relevant to today.

But Mozart has a whole different set of challenges. Mozart requires a particular sense of sound, and getting that sound out of a modern instrument after you have had years of playing Chopin and Liszt and big works like that, then Mozart becomes in a sense harder.

Well, I don't know any piece by heart, but Mozart goes something like this... What do you think?

You look at Beethoven's sketch book and he's working things out, trying this, trying that. Mozart didn't do that. He simply wrote it out. Beethoven did not have the same abilities that Mozart had. And you know how much Beethoven means to us. When you listen to the Ninth Symphony, it's one of the greatest accomplishments of all mankind, artistically certainly. But he shuddered when he thought of the shadow Mozart cast over music and he felt pressure, just like Brahms felt the pressure Beethoven's Ninth put on symphonic writing.

Even though it is snowing out, people can come and get into the spring spirit. The pieces are upbeat and so moving. The overall spring look of the performers is spectacular, it's going to be a beautiful and eloquent spring Mozart performance.

Even if one is thinking about elevator music, or Weather Channel music, there isn't any necessity for that music to be bad music. I remind people all the time that Mozart would probably sound great in an elevator. A lot of Mozart is very smooth to our ears, but that doesn't mean there isn't an amazing amount of subtlety there for the listener who digs deeper.

Some people really want to play Mozart and be just performers. I was more interested in invention.

Performing this music here, where he was born, in a way you feel 'Oh, this is what Mozart saw, this is what Mozart was breathing; the air, the atmosphere'.

Ours has much more to do with the Masonic theme. Mozart was really intrigued by the ideals of the Masons and wanting to have truth, virtue and reason be the model by which people live by.

Someone who copies a Van Gogh does not therefore become Van Gogh, and the same would go for Mozart or anyone else who contributed something that was original. Certainly in the way that I described visualizing numbers in abstract, meaningful shapes.

As many times as I have done 'Marriage of Figaro,' I have never been able to ask Mozart what he intended in this piece.

This is the first time we've ever done Mozart outdoors.

There was a time in which "vulgar music" was how people called something like The Magic Flute. From Mozart to the reggeton; oh man, this world had fallen low!

It's my hope that teachers and parents will use music just like they use good food and vegetables -- that there's a place for it in their diet, ... The Mozart Effect.

Each of the six characters are equal. There's no diva, no star of the show. They all are stars. There are times all six of them are singing at exactly the same time, and it actually makes sense. Mozart is the only person who could actually pull it off and make it work.

The language of the pieces from this year is totally different than before. His earlier works stand in the shadow of Mozart and Beethoven, but with works like the 'Death and the Maiden' quartet, Schubert frees himself from Beethoven's influence and writes pieces that are original.

If Mozart were alive today, I don't think there's any question he'd be writing for the movies. This was a guy who was always looking for ways to make money, and soundtracks can be a very lucrative field.

I listen to a lot of different stuff, from Mozart to Johnny Dowd to Monster Magnet. I don't listen to music while I'm writing a draft, but I do listen to it when I'm revising.

I decided I wanted to be a musician when I saw the movie 'Amadeus' around 1987. I was five years old, so it was a good time to start piano lessons after seeing Tom Hulce who played Mozart play the harpsichord on his back with his hands crossed. Such a great movie to inspire a five-year-old.

I can say without a shred of doubt that I have never, nor has anyone else that I have ever known, heard of gang members conducting a drive-by shooting while listening to Mozart or Vivaldi. But the same can not be said about 50 Cent - even the opening of his first and hopefully last movie spawned shootings at movie theaters across the country.

The man on the street, he knows who Beethoven is, he knows who Mozart is.