A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · #

MY RECORD

COLLECTION

HOME· ARTISTS· ALBUMS· COUNTRY· LABELS· GENRES· WANTS

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I'm very much afraid to venture talking about this most important classical composer. How does a person like me, who hasn't read a single biography and knows practically nothing about this genius go about giving his two cents (and this without being completely ripped to shreds by the connoisseurs and classical snobs)? Along with Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart tops the charts as the world's most renowned classical composers. Millions know infinitely more about him than I do, so instead of repeating tons of useless information which is readily available pretty much anywhere, I will focus on how I came to actually start exploring the master's works.

First of all, flash back to 1993. Of course I had heard the name and the music before then, but this is the time when the name actually sparked my curiosity. This is the time when I started film school, 16 years old, young, dumb and full of cum (bet this is the first time this word shows up while talking about Mozart). I'm hungry for the medium, I want to discover and know everything there is to know. With baby steps, I start taking notice of film directors other than George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (thank GOD!!!). I start regularly frequenting the Cinema De Paris, a legendary film theater on Ste-Catherine street. The place is renowned for showing all the latest indie/trendy flicks of the time and it was the only place to actually keep the midnight movie alive on weekends in Montreal. This is where I saw David Lynch's Eraserhead for the first time, Pulp Fiction, Baraka, and so many others. There was something magical about the place. You had to go up two flights of stairs just to get to the cashier and then another flight of stairs to get to the theater. I remember the wonderfully funky rust colored carpeting, the pungent smell of old popcorn and glue, the crushing humidity, the cigarette stains and the innumerable amount of film posters pasted haphazardly from wall-to-wall. No one could have guessed how much I felt at home every time I crossed that unremarkable door right next to the flashy vegetarian restaurant. Inside lay a whole new world of art, culture and magic which was to turn me into a whole new person. Unfortunately, the theater does not exist anymore. The owners moved to another street (under a huge, gray mall) and although the formula is practically the same, the vibe just isn't the same anymore. Every time I think back to those Cinema De Paris days, I become extremely nostalgic. But I digress.

It is during those that I discovered the films of David Lynch, Pedro Almodovar and Peter Greenaway. Although Eraserhead was a devastating experience for me, it was the films of the latter which truly had a deep impact on my views of cinema. During a retrospective, I had the chance to see almost all of his works and literally became obsessed with his films (something which happens to me a lot as you might have noticed, just look around site to see to what extent it can go). His artistic vision is one of a kind and he had found the perfect composer to work with him: Michael Nyman. His soundtrack's have had as much of an effect on me as Greenaway's films did. I bought everything that was available at the time. I was especially fond of Drowning By Numbers. And this is where Mozart finally comes in the picture. The film's soundtrack revolves around a few bars from the austrian master's Sinfonia Concertante Für Violine Und Viola. So of course I had to find out more. This was going to happen much later on, when I was married in Sweden. By pure luck, I found the Deutsche Gramofon edition of the work in a puny yard sale. I bought the CD for approximately two bucks and gave it a listen. Simply hearing those few bars which sparked the inspiration for the Drowning By Numbers soundtrack was enough to get my heart running! Ever since then, I promised myself to explore the composer's works whenever I had the chance. There are way too many releases of his works out there, so there is no way I'll be getting them all, but once I a while, I will try to get a few, making sure I get a decent interpretation of his most famous works. With time... With time perhaps I will knowledgeable enough to actually write down my thoughts on his career, but for now, I think I'll keep my big mouth shut.

---