Mozart rules OK
Sir: Allow me, please, to trail a coat. The reason why so many people have now put Mozart ahead of Beethoven is far simpler than Michael Kennedy suggests (Arts, 18 May). Mozart, and Bach, of course, wrote, at their best, better music than anybody else. (Though we must recognise in Beethoven's middle and late quartets a sort of honorary Mozartship, I grant you.) But what was also needed for this reassessment to take place was that you sensible young- sters out there should have become proper- ly aware of Mozart's pre-eminence, and the cause of that is the vastly greater opportu- nities we all have of listening to good music. The more we hear, the sounder is our judgment.
However, I must not overstate my case. The best efforts of a few other composers are not far behind: Monteverdi's Vespers, Dido and Aeneas, and lots of Schu- bert come to mind. But as for a whole heap of other composers — well, what I say is, roll over, Vivaldi, the rest of Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Berlioz, Brahms, Wagner, etc., including, of course, Schoenberg and all his deluded imitators.
All right, all right, so I exaggerate a little.
Denis Young
The Old Manse, Glenlyon, Aberfeldy, Perthshire
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