RE: Mozart was a bad composer...

[Thayer A <A.Thayer@rhbnc.ac.uk>]

> A very infantile and groundless quotation. If it's Gould, I can't respect
> him any more.
> 
> Juozas Rimas
> 
> 
Personally I agree entirely with Gould. Mozart is a very over-rated
composer, whose music is riddled with appalling cliches (and yes they were
cliches in his day not just ours). He has brief moments of quality, but the
music always reverts to an appallingly obvious and over-used cadence, after
a few brief seconds of interest. The early classical style was a case of
musical degeneration, for me, not any kind of real advancement. It moves
away from the tight structure and advanced counterpoint of Bach, but does
not acheive the same emotional quality as romantic music. I regard Mozart as
an important developmental composer, but this does not make him a great
composer (same with Liszt in many ways). I think it is a case of Mozart
having taken a step backwards, to allow later composers to take two steps
forwards. Anyway, I'm not going to bore you by ranting on about this
forever. These are just my basic views on his music.

Andrew