What makes Mozart a great composer?
I think it was pianist Arthur Schnabel who called Mozart’s music “better than it can be played”, and that may get you more situated to understand the PR. I think Haydn should be right up there with him, but further in response, Maybe a good eyes closed listen to Benjamin Britten’s BBC legends (terrible mono) recording of the Requiem would answer. It may be a historical document, but the feeling you may be missing is there. It’s also hidden in the simplicity of the ambience he can create, while never being simplistic or condescending to the listener, and maintaining a conversation with your brain while never neon-signing emotional areas, they appear spontaneously. Adorno would have me tarred & feathered, I know. try Robert Kapilow’s ‘What Makes it great” series, where he’s done a couple on old Gottlieb.
