Happy birthday, Wolfgang!

Today is our favorite composer's birthday! To celebrate this special day, I decided to make free desktop and iPhone backgrounds for my readers. To use, simply click on the picture, then right click and select "Set as Desktop Background". Please share with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

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What Happens When You Mix Mozart and James Bond...

     Igudesman & Joo mix Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor and the theme song to James Bond. The result is quite entertaining! The two men are incredible musicians and are also very funny. It's always enjoyable to watch talented musicians such as these have a blast with some of the best music ever written!

     On a side note--do you think Mozart would have liked martinis shaken, not stirred?...

Hipster Mozart?

Something I can say I love just as much as Mozart is playing around in Photoshop.

When I put my two passions together this is what happens.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

May the Child Jesus bless you abundantly

this Christmas season and throughout the new year.

The Great Mass in C Minor, K. 427....Now on Mozart's Music!

Ladies and gentlemen...I have now uploaded all of the movements to the unfinished masterpiece, Große Messe in c-Moll (The Great Mass in C Minor), K. 427! I posted them here as a playlist so that you can sample all of the movements in one sitting, or better yet, listen to them all through completely! Enjoy and please leave comments letting me know what you think!

Happy Birthday, Nannerl!

Nannerl in 1763, wearing a dress given to her by
Empress Maria Theresa when she and Wolfgang performed for her.

Mozart's sister, Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart, or Nannerl for short, was born on July 30, 1751 in Salzburg. She was the fourth child born to Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart, but the first to survive infancy.

Nannerl was one of Mozart's greatest heroes. As a child he would watch her play the piano and take lessons from Leopold, and then he would try to play her pieces. Like her brother, Nannerl was a child prodigy, but since she was a woman, she couldn't pursue a career like him. 

On August 23, 1783, Nannerl married twice-widowed Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg and moved to St. Gilgen (the town where her mother was born). She took care of his five children and eventually had three of her own, two daughters and one son. 

Nannerl in 1785.

Wolfgang often composed piano duets to perform with his sister while they were young. In 1765, at nine years old, he composed this piece, which the two performed together:

On October 29, 1829, Nannerl passed away in Salzburg, where she lived after her husband died in 1801. 

Better Posts Are to Come...

I can promise you that better posts are to come in the near future. In the meantime, this insignificant post may be interesting to some of my readers! These are the costumes in the film Amadeus that were inspired by real portraits. I'm sorry I couldn't think of anything more interesting at the moment, but as I said, some important "Mozart Dates" are coming up, which means better posts are too.

MOZART

 

EMPEROR JOSEPH II

 

 

CONSTANZE

 

LEOPOLD MOZART

 

 

For the movie, they re-painted Leopold's portrait

to look like the actor!

SALIERI

 

Interestingly, Salieri's suits didn't seem to match

any of his portraits. This was the closest I could find.

What Mozart Really Looked Like? The Video! (Take Two)

This time it's on YouTube to stay!

New! Classical Creations

http://www.cafepress.com/classicalcreations

Guten Appetit!

For a while now, I had been wanting to try wiener schnitzel to see how it tasted. Being an avid Mozart fan, I take great pride in my German and Austrian ancestry! I decided to celebrate my heritage and made wiener schnitzel and German potato salad for dinner. It was served with sparkling red grape juice -- a very cheap substitute for wine -- since Austria is known for its sweet red wine.

I decided to go all-traditional and made the schnitzel with veal cutlets.

I made breadcrumbs simply by toasting some hot dog buns and crumbling them up.

The schnitzel was ....... simply delicious.

The potato salad was delicious as well. I normally don't like

potato salad (or potatoes in general), but this salad had a wonderful taste.

The recipes...

I got these recipes by searching around online.

Wiener Schnitzel - Viennese Breaded Cutlet

Serves: 4 (1 per person)

Ingredients:

4 veal cutlets, pounded to 1/4" thickness (you can also use chicken or pork if you wish)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

2 eggs

Oil or lard for frying

Set up 3 shallow dishes. Place flour, salt and pepper in one, and breadcrumbs in another. Beat eggs well and place in the third dish.

Heat at least 1/4" oil in large frying pan to 350°F.

Working one at a time, dredge cutlets first in flour until the surface is completely dry. Dip in egg to coat, allow the excess to drip off for a few seconds and then roll quickly in the breadcrumbs until coated. Do not press breadcrumbs into the meat. The crust should not adhere completely, but form a loose shell around the schnitzel. Place meat immediately in the pan with the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Cook the schnitzel in batches, if necessary.

Fry the schnitzel for 3-4 minutes on one side. You may want to swish them around a little with your fork to make sure they are not sticking to the pan. Turn them over once and fry until both sides are golden brown. Remove from pan, allow the oil to drain off, place on a plate with lemon wedge and potato salad and serve.

German Potato Salad

Serves: 12-14

Ingredients:

8 medium potatoes

1 medium onion

1.5 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

2 tbsp vinegar (red wine or apple cider, to give it a better flavor)

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 - 3/4 cup boiled water

1 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. mayonnaise

Chives (to taste)

3 boiled eggs

Boil the potatoes in their skins and cook until they are still a little firm. Do not peel the potatoes before boiling them, as the flavor will disappear. While they are still hot, peel them, then finely slice them into a bowl. 

Add finely diced onion, salt, pepper, sugar and vinegar. Add boiled hot water. Mix together and leave to stand for at least 15 to 30 minutes.

The recipe says here to add enough boiled water so that there is a small amount of liquid visible in the bowl once everything has been mixed together. If too much water is added the potato salad will become soggy. Check for excess liquid halfway through standing time and drain off if necessary.

After the standing time, add two boiled and chopped eggs, olive oil and mayonnaise to the potato salad. Mix together.

Slice the remaining egg and garnish along with chives. Mix together just prior to serving.

**The longer the potato salad is left to stand, the better tasting it becomes!**

Guten Appetit!

Mozart's Requiem

         When Mozart's Requiem in D Minor, K. 626, was commissioned by a mysterious visitor (a messenger of Count Walsegg, who wanted to pass the composition off as his own), Mozart felt that the messenger was from heaven, telling him that his time was coming. He had been sick for a few months, and wasn't getting any better (he had a suspicion that a composer rival had poisoned him). He had a great fear of death. He wasn't in a good financial position, which worried him even more since he had a wife and two sons. 
         The Requiem in D Minor is probably Mozart's most incredible work. Unfortunately, a large portion of it was unfinished when he died. His pupil Franz Xaver Süßmayr finished the work after Mozart passed away.
         The story of the Requiem inspired me to write a little piece of poetry based on Mozart's point of  view while he is writing his last piece of music. I never write poetry, and this therefore doesn't follow any sort of writing rules. I just wrote what came to me and I hope you like it!

What is this pain inside

Which fills this joyful heart with sorrow,

Which counts every heartbeat as if it were the last,

And fills my every day with terror?

Each note I inscribe sings of my approaching doom,

The fate every man is sentenced to --

Rich and poor, good and dishonest alike.

My hand trembles as I begin each new measure;

The work is no longer mine, but my fate singing through me.

Why me? -- A man so young

And with multiple mouths to feed --

Why is this the man death searches for?

My beloved Creator would not call me so soon,

But jealous rivals made of flesh

Are anxious to be rid of me.

I feel the cruel, invisible weapon

Put in my goblet for an unsuspecting sip;

It creeps up my body and clutches on

With teeth like a venomous snake.

This mortal is lost in the battle for life;

His feeble body is no match for men's jealousy.

But listen!
My music rings out loud in the streets;

I am not dead, but alive!

I sing through ivory, ebony and wood,

Through brass horns and pipes of silver!
What man tried to be rid of,

Man brought back to life! 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers everywhere!

Anna Maria (Pertl) Mozart

December 25, 1720 – July 3, 1778

Mozart took after his mother Anna Maria. He resembled her in face and in character.

Anna Maria was born in Sankt Gilgen, Salzburg, and died in Paris, France while her son was there looking for employment.  

What Mozart Really Looked Like?...The video!

Thank goodness the computer is now fixed, and I can once again make videos for YouTube! This is what I originally wanted to make but couldn't, and so resorted to making a plain blog post. What do you think?

What Mozart Really Looked Like?

You may have seen the video I posted a while back about Mozart's alleged death mask. Since I am 99% convinced that it is his, I painted a portrait based on this mask. I found that the face resembles the portrait of Mozart painted by his brother-in-law Joseph Lange, the portrait that Mozart's wife Constanze said looked the most like him. While I am an amateur painter, I think one can get the basic idea. What do you think?......

(There's nothing wrong with your computer...that's a watermark over his face :))

The picture of the mask that I referred to hundreds of times while painting.

The Lange portrait.

While Mozart's hair appears brown in this painting, he actually had blond hair. Some artists think that Lange painted the hair brown because he was in a darker room.

Music In Their Eyes

Maybe I'm just weird (most likely the case)...

When I see paintings of all the different composers, I see music in their eyes. Not written-out notes or anything, but a certain glow of the gracious gift given to them by God.

Notice how the look in their eyes reflects the feel of their music. 

Mozart: A mysterious glow with a little of everything--sadness, joy; calmness and excitement. His eyes are full of these emotions, like his music.

J. S. Bach: A joyful look that a father gives his children. I have said before that I call Bach the "Father of Music", and his eyes almost earn him the title. His eyes are full of knowledge, just like his incredible music.

Beethoven: A look of anger and also of deep contemplation. Just like that look, his music is full of strong emotion and feeling--mostly anger!

What do you see when you look into their eyes?

Mozart's Best Pieces

Enjoy!

Mozart's Death Mask: Is It Real?

Please comment on whether you think the mask is Mozart's or not...comment either on this blog or on YouTube...or on both!