It is said that when angels talk to God, they sing Bach, but when they talk to each other, they sing Mozart.

Most people know that performing Mozart offers unique challenges to musicians. Only those who have never tried it underestimate its dangers. Put a foot wrong and we spoil the magic, but give the impression that we are walking on eggshells and we will not do it justice. Be too careful and the music won't sound carefree. Be too careless and it will sound like we don't care at all. But from the little we know of Mozart, he would undoubtedly have been upset by the inhibition and fear that too much respect can sometimes induce.

There are few people in the world who do not need to have experienced something to be able to express it. Yet Mozart's empathy with his operatic characters shines through whoever they are. It is true that in The Marriage of Figaro, one feels that deep down Mozart is Cherubino, in Così fan Tutti, he identifies most with Ferrando, in The Magic Flute, he undoubtedly speaks through Papageno, and in Don Giovanni....well in Don Giovanni everything is more complicated! Yet whatever age or sex, there is not a single role in any of the stage works that is not clearly and profoundly defined. Given that it is simply not possible for Mozart to have done everything his characters do, where does this understanding come from?

This unfathomable Shakespearean quality also saves the composer a great deal of time, and allows those blessed with it to create in quantities beyond rational understanding. Mozart wasn't the only one. It's been calculated that it would take a lifetime to simply copy out everything Bach wrote! On the other hand however, not every genius is this prodigious. It is not something you associate with Beethoven for instance. His manuscripts reveal the struggle behind every note; the resultant perfection is definitely hard won by. In a way, that perhaps makes his music even more moving. The human achievement somehow appears the larger for the toil that went into its creation.

Mozart's music has the enigmatic ability to simultaneously laugh and cry. Us lesser mortals normally need to decide between the two, and as a result find it hard to express that perfect equilibrium. We like to choose between grace or strength, youth or wisdom, poetry or drama, dreams or reality. But perhaps in not having to do so, we are able to become more in touch with our inner soul - that subconscious world that does not entertain humanity's superficial pigeon-holing of its more conscious categorisations. If playing or listening to Mozart's music connects us with the very essence of who we are, what more from music does one need? As the Hungarian pianist Georgy Sebok said in summing up Mozart's mysterious genius: 'Mozart reminds us that the human race is greater than it knows.'

Fortunately we don't have to leave it only to the angels.

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