Trying to \u2018describe\u2019 music; the feel of it and the effect particular composers have on you isn\u2019t easy. Those who have kindly been reading these articles may well agree. I was reading an interview with the distinguished (and very modest) pianist Mitsuko Uchida the other day. Clearly she knows how to represent the essence of music in words as brilliantly as she does on the keyboard.<\/p>\n
\u2018I want to play more and more Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven \u2013 and I shall slowly, slowly invade the world with my Bach\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019m more and more drawn to those fundamental four composers. It\u2019s almost frightening: there is something about them growing so big in my life that I feel I almost have to fight against them not to get completely consumed\u2019<\/p>\n
For her it was Schubert who \u2019was the one among all the great composers that I felt close to, even as a kid. I didn\u2019t think I was close to Mozart at all. And I was right \u2013 you can\u2019t get close to Mozart! You can get closer and closer to what he is doing, and you can hit him for a hundredth of a second now and then \u2013 but then he goes, and you have to let him go. But Schubert I felt was a kindred soul of mine. He can be alone with you. Mozart is running around, conversing with you, chasing you \u2013 there\u2019s always something happening. But Schubert is a loner \u2013 so every lonely soul is touched by him\u2019.<\/p>\n
I know exactly what she means. I would go further in comparing the two composers; certainly more than I imagine Uchida would. In the end Mozart for me is glitteringly brilliant, whereas Schubert is a constant source of fascination and delight. Subjective of course, but however knowledgeable the experts may be, in the end there are no absolutes about musical appreciation.<\/p>\n
What music does to you can be a shared experience, but in the end is personal to you alone.<\/p>\n
B.R.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Trying to \u2018describe\u2019 music; the feel of it and the effect particular composers have on you isn\u2019t easy. Those who have kindly been reading these articles may well agree. I was reading an interview with the distinguished (and very modest) pianist Mitsuko Uchida the other day. Clearly she knows how to represent the essence of music in words as brilliantly as she does on the keyboard. \u2018I want to play more and more Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven \u2013 and I shall slowly, slowly invade the world with my Bach\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019m more and more drawn to those fundamental four <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n