Whenever my spirits flag, I listen to the music of Mozart. I don't know what it is about his music, but there is something that I find uplifting about it. Even the more somber pieces like "Ave Verum Corpus" and the Adagio movement from the "Clarinet Concerto in C" I find somehow moving and inspiring, despite their tone. There is such a longing, a deep spirit in them, that appeals to my sensibilities. I think had I ever had a chance to meet Mozart, I think that I would have liked him a great deal, as I have always admired him as an artist, as I admire the great artists past and present. Like so many, he died too young, only 35 years old at the time of his death in 1791. One wonders, had he lived long enough, what he might have been able to do, to create. Even his final pieces of music show brilliance beyond his years. I well remember singing his "Requiem Mass" K. 626 in 1985 with the Kent Chorus and the Canton Symphony Orchestra and being moved to a completely different space. It was perhaps one of the greatest moments in my life, as it became rapidly apparent that the musicians and the audience were all on some other plane of existence. I truly felt that we brought Mozart alive that night with us on stage. I could feel his presence among us and I remember floating on Cloud 9 after the performance. It was a high better than any drug could ever give you. It was a high of creating great music with great artists and having some kind of unity of spirit with every person in that hall that night. I am fortunate that I was, at the time, dating someone who knew the recording engineer who was recording the performance to be played later on the local NPR station, WKSU, 89.7 FM. I'd loved Mozart's music before that, but that night heightened my love of his music like nothing before or since. 
Back in December 1996, I had the good fortune to visit my sister and her family in Europe and perhaps the highlight of that visit was a day spent in Salzburg, Austria and a trip to the "Altstadt", or, the old city, to visit Mozart's Geburtshaus, or Mozart's birthplace. I accidentally took a few photographs of the interior when photography was not permitted (I found out later when I saw a sign telling visitors that no photography was allowed - OOPS!) but at least I have some nice pictures of the piano that he played in his youth and the rather simple home he lived in as a child. It wasn't the grandiose Baroque residence I expected. Rather, it was a surprisingly simple home. He wasn't exactly living in poverty, but neither was he living the life of the well heeled crowd, either. Still, I could picture a young Mozart walking these narrow streets and gathering inspiration for his music from the scenery around him. I could imagine him hearing other musicians and composers in and around Salzburg, and living with his stern father Leopold, and playing for the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg, who is portrayed in the film "Amadeus" as a rather haughty fellow. It was a glorious day of taking in the sights and sounds of an historic city that was also the place where the movie "The Sound of Music" was filmed. It's fun to watch that movie now and to see the places I visited and to see familiar scenes in and around Salzburg that I saw when I was there.
I've seen the movie "Amadeus" countless times and I never fail to enjoy the heck out of it. Recently, I saw a director's cut that re-added several deleted scenes that shed some light on some of the scenes in the movie. The soundtrack made the top of the bestseller lists in music, which to me shows how approachable Mozart's music really is. I can listen to it over and over again and never tire of it. I never tire, either, of the brilliant acting in the film, particularly the work of F. Murray Abraham as Salieri. He's just plain brilliant and a very complex character that has many nuances that Abraham brought out. You sense his both worship and envy of Mozart's brilliance as a musician. In a weird sense, I found myself kind of being able to identify with Salieri. It's tough when you live in the shadow of someone who is more talented than you are, or who you at least perceive to be more talented than you are. I grew up feeling much this way about my older sister, never realizing that I might have my own talents and abilities that were just as real. It took me years to get past that old sense of inferiority and at times, it still rears its ugly head whenever I am in the presence of someone who I see as immensely talented or skilled, moreso than me, in something I want to be able to do. Well, we all have our own abilities and talents that make us unique. I just have to keep reminding myself of that whenever I am possessed of an inferiority complex over something.
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