5 ms·

I find the contrast and coherence between Mozart and Haydn really wonderful. Those days I hear more Haydn than Mozart. Mozart's pieces are amazing, but they're

I find the contrast and coherence between Mozart and Haydn really wonderful. Those days I hear more Haydn than Mozart. Mozart's pieces are amazing, but they're so powerful and distinctive I don't find drawn to them over and over. Haydn's pieces are often just as prodigious, but more modest; he calmly draws you in and paints the main themes. I find hearing Haydn a journey. Mozart is more catchy, viral, virtuosic. To me Mozart is miraculous in his operas of course, but also when he set sights on "modest" forms of the string and piano quartet (learning from Haydn no doubt). K 458 is a good example to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYTuXWxNhxo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYTuXWxNhxo I encourage everyone to discover Haydn as well! He had much more time to develop the techniques and depths of composition, and it shows in his later works. Mozart is good, but mature Haydn pieces... I can hardly believe it's music I'm hearing and not a beautiful story.

madhadron 6y ago
There's a standard joke among quartet players that Haydn builds string quartets and Mozart destroys them. New quartets begin playing Haydn because it all fits together so solidly that it guides the quartet into gelling. Mozart quartets regularly just don't have that scaffolding and the quartet had better have their quasi-telepathic communication down first.
khazhoux 6y ago
For anyone in the Bay Area: if we ever get out of pandemic, the St. Lawrence String Quartet are artists-in-residence at Stanford who specialize in Haydn. They have regular Sunday afternoon performances, as well as three free noon concerts during the summer. Their energy and enthusiasm for Haydn is thrilling, and they're big supporters of living composers as well.