Quote:
Originally Posted by almacg
I don't see how you could say Mozart is a genius but Beethoven isn't. If the definition of musical genius is to be able to hold and improvise an entire orchestra in the mind (and it's up to you if you agree or disagree), then Beethoven was a genius. When he wrote his ninth symphony I believe he was deaf. How could he possibly write such a work without any external reference?
Also, the notion that Mozart's work was more polished than Beethoven's is subjective for one thing!
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I never realized the relative lack of polish in Beethoven's music until i heard Mozart's 29th played just prior to it. That last minute change in the program ruined the rest of the concert for me.
As for genius, in my opinion (and that of countless other composers), Beethoven certainly was a genius (who has written anything of the same class since?), but there are degrees of genius. Beethoven's music was often powerful, beautiful, even sublime, but his struggle to remember and write down everything that he heard in his head is apparent (especially once you know that he admitted to this). He knew that the range and breadth of his imagination and creativity was second to none who was alive but he had to struggle to turn that into music. Yet what he did produce, even if not as good as what he knew it to be, influenced countless generations of musicians since, even modern musicians, who go to incredible lengths (like writing shockingly bad music) to try and be the next Beethoven.
In his final hours he revealed that it was Handel who he held above all others, even higher than Mozart. The following quote has been attributed to Beethoven:
"Handel was the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover my head, and kneel before his tomb." Supposedly he also said that if there was a doctor who can help him "his name would be Wonderful."
Interestingly, both Beethoven and Mozart seem to have been similarly inspired by Handel, and the Messiah in particular. Mozart even took Handel on directly, using the subject from the fugue "and with his stripes" (Messiah) to forge his own double fugue in the Requiem and then expressing a dramatic range and language beyond that of the original. Yet don't his aria's pale in comparison to Handel's?
YouTube - Serse: Ombra mai fu
Perhaps Handel, really was the greatest of them all.