What part of Mozart's works would you save?

Question

OK, gang, a new game. Let's see how it goes with Mozart and I may extend it to other composers.

Your house is on fire. You have been extremely anally retentive(!) and have separated your collection of Mozart CDs into a number of larger boxes, by genre. Symphonies, Piano Concertos, Other Concertos, Serenades and other miscellaneous orchestral music, Chamber Music (to include violin sonatas), Piano Sonatas, Choral Works (masses, Requiem etc) and Operas (including concert arias).

In your rush to escape the fire, you only have time to snatch one of these larger boxes, leaving the rest to be consumed by the flames. Which box would it be and why?

My choice would have to be the operas as I find increasingly that I listen to these more often than the other works.

Over to you.

tucomena · Accepted Answer

By all means I would save all his piano concerts, especially Number 23..I just love each note of it!

tucomena

? · Answer

that will ALMOST work fine, who are you building that for...Bill Gates?! The 3 way SLI will not work, but it will with the GTX 285 although you'll want to confirm that the videocards come with SLI dongles...but they usually do. The power supply has enough connectors for three cards. Its an awesome supply too, pretty much the most power you can draw from a wall outlet. Yes, GTX295's will likley render the middle PCI slots useless as they're very fat cards. The RAM is perfect for that board, though when they're too fast the mobo just downclocks them. The case has plenty of space, although if you want the best go with a Liam Li. Mobo raid also will work fine. Watercooling is a waste of money in my opinion unless you're doing ridiculous OCing or you want a completely silent rig. Just make sure you have good airflow, so have tidy cabling and adequate fans. Probably 3 125mm case fans. EDIT>Also, if you truly want a top end mobo I'd go with an Asus, I don't have time to find one for you but I have had some bad experiences with EVGA.

del_icious_manager · Answer

I'm a symphony man through and through. With the Mozart symphonies I would have a snapshot of the genius's musical development from the age of 9 until his maturity. However, I would need ALL the symphonies, (not just the numbered ones) as I wouldn't want to be without a single note.

My second choice (I know I'm not allowed one but I'm going to tell you anyway) would be chamber music - as long as it was allowed to include all the wind serenades plus some of those delicious wind octet arrangements of 'hits' from the operas (if you haven't tried them, please do - they're fab). Oh, and it would have to include the 'Gran Partita' (Serenade for 13 Winds) as well, as I count that as chamber music, not orchestral.

As it happens, all my CDs are in strict alphabetical order - they have to be as I have so many that, were they not organised thus, I'd never find anything. I don't separate them my genre, however. I'm not quite THAT bad.

MINUS 10 points to the first smart alec that say we should have all our music on an iPod!

? · Answer

Operas. That was a surprisingly easy choice to make for me. But strange because my first instrument is the piano.

I love every single one of his operas too much to sacrifice them. Plus my absolute favourite opera is in there! Le Nozze di Figaro. How could I let it burn.... I've always thought that Mozart was a vocal and theatrical composer through and through. Even his instrumental music capture the essence of lyricism and drama. I never get tired of his operas no matter how many times I watch/listen to them.

P.S. Where would his motet for soprano and orchestra - "Exsultate, jubilate" - belong? In the opera and arias box because it's a solo vocal work? Or "other concertos" (it's technically a concerto in 3 movements for soprano and orchestra...)? I wouldn't want to lose that either. :D

Anonyme · Answer

You have such a wonderful CD collection :O can I come over to your house and steal your stuff?


I'd either keep his operas or his piano concertos. I love how action-packed his piano pieces are, although I know only very few of his works :< (any essential suggestions?)

Erunno · Answer

Tough one, I'm not too familiar with all of Mozart's work, though.
I'd say Piano Concertos, as I prefer these.
But his Sonatas for Piano are lovely.
And I enjoy symphonys.

I'd choose P. Concertos, as I do have an infatuation with these things, in general.

? · Answer

Thankfully I had the presence of mind to rip everything to mp3s on the laptop. I also had the foresight to scan every scrap of his music into pdf format, also secure on the disk. I then make regular backups on a RAID 5 NAS so nothing is ever lost.

I grab the laptop, and NAS (one under each arm) and let the rest burn.

... sadly I'm not sure that the insurance company will cover the full value of the piano. :-(

Nemesis · Answer

Having first seriously considered self-immolation with the complete works around me, I would have to salvage the operas & arias as being the very essence of him, and count myself lucky to be able to carry off most of the concertos in memory as an unpremeditated bonus.

(I have to admit that your scenario is a real nightmare of mine: living out in the wilds, the arrival of any fire engine could be a long time in the coming should such a conflagration actually occur here...) :-//

It's not going to happen, it' s not going to happen, it's no... :-))

hafwen · Answer

Easy decision! I share Erunno's infatuation with Mozart's piano concertos, so that's what I'd snatch before exiting!

Hafwen x

Joshua · Answer

Grrrrrrrrr!! You don't make it easy, do you? Lol.

Hmmm tough choice to make.

I guess it would have to be the Operas. There are just too many goodies in them. 

If I lost my collection of Mozart's Operas, I would (hypothetically) kill myself. Lol.

What part of Mozart's works would you save?

14 réponses