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The beauty of Mozart's music is well known. It is also a well known fact that Mozart's music is much easier to play when you are a child compared to when you are an adult.
Why? There is no one answer. My personal understanding is that his music is very innocent, the melodies are beautiful and easy to sing. Children usually do not have an issue about singing, but, when we grow up, many of us think that because we cannot sing in tune, we cannot sing at all, and stop singing completely, even when by ourselves.
For a child, singing is usually not an issue. The simple phrases which express beauty and joy or sadness are natural. They somehow align with the way we, as children, experience our emotions.
Below are six interpretations which I find very beautiful:
Friedrich Gulda was known for his interesting character, who played jazz and classical music.
His interpretations of Mozart for me represent 'true' Mozart in my understanding of Mozart's character.
It is hard for me to objective about my great grand uncle, but Vladimir Horowitz always had a certain quality in his sound, which had a happy or very sad tone (the latter made many of his listeners cry). As a person, he had the quality of a child, as he loved pranks (and this was during all this life. When he was a young man he used to make pranks with his mother, by sending my grand mother ( his niece) to go to her and say ; Volodia said that the words like ... (and there was a list of a slightly naughty words inappropriate for a civilised conversation) I should never say). When I met him in 1984 he was making jokes about the movies he loved watching at night and called them 'piff-paff'. His personality goes really well with Mozart, although his freedom of tempos often raised brows amongst the purists who love Mozart's music.
When I heard Mitzuko Yuchida's playing Mozart for the first time at the Royal Festival Hall, I was hypnotised. I could not move. She was playing Adagio. Her sound, so different from other players, came across as totally pure, the quintessential Mozart. The phrasing was incredible. I think if such an understanding exists, she represents the profound energy of Mozart's music. Very different from the other artists, but totally magnetic.
Olga Jegunova is a young pianist living in the UK. I happened to come across this video on YouTube and really like her interpretation. Her phrasing is beautiful and the interpretation is lovely. Olga is also an activist as she recently helped launched a scheme 'Adopt a musician' with the aim to help many artists who lost their income due to the current pandemic.
Lang Lang's interpretation does not need an introduction. He is well known for his child-like character. This recording represents beautiful sound and his very personal 'touch' in the interpretation, which lands beautifully (in my humble opinion) into Mozart's style. It is very entertaining and delightful!
And finally, here is a child playing Mozart. Elisey Musin is only 8 years old. You can see for yourself that it looks like the biggest challenge for him is represented in playing octaves (and not in phrasing). These seem to come natural to him.
So who is your personal favourite and why? It would be great if you could leave your thoughts below as it is always nice to see what the audience prefers.
My take on this is that we all have many sides to our personality, and Mozart was 'one of us'! A real human being. This is why I think all these recordings are valid, as each one, represents a little part of this genius and we are very fortunate to have these wonderful artists delivering his music to us.
With love,
GéNIA