Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
You could become a genius |
| Disadvantages: |
But then again you might not |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
According to a website I visited recently, the illustrious President of the United States, George W. Bush (otherwise known as George W. Gump) has an I.Q. of 91. That may or may not be true – if it is, I didn’t realise it was that high.
Mr Bush may be interested to learn (but probably isn’t) that he could increase his intelligence quotient by several points, according to researchers, by the simple expedient of – wait for it – listening to Mozart. There are many websites devoted to what is known as The Mozart Effect, notably http://www.mozarteffect.com and you can check them out for yourself.
The basic premise is that anyone exposed regularly to the
music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will benefit by increasing their brain-power. Actually, the music used for the research was his Sonata for Two Pianos, a delightful work that anyone can enjoy however much or little they know about music. But those who believe in the
Mozart Effect will tell you that any of the great master’s music will do the trick and that the earlier you expose the young child to his music the better (even in the womb). Indeed, there is a vast array of CDs on offer at the above-named website including one entitled Mozart For Babies: Nighty Night (I kid you not!!!).
Now I don’t particularly wish to enter into the debate about whether or not this really does have the effect of raising the intelligence level of the child or the adult (or indeed the childish adult) because Mozart needs no such advocacy. His music is worth hearing because it can speak to us directly across the centuries and can give untold pleasure in its own right. If believing in a Mozart Effect encourages others to listen to his wonderful music that must be all to the good. I’ve been listening to it for about 45 years (and that ought to make me a genius by now!), ever since I learned that I share his birthday (well OK, he’s 187 years older than me but that’s near enough!) and I’m still discovering new works – he wrote over six hundred pieces encompassing almost every type imaginable: symphonies, concertos, string quartets, operas, choral works, etc. and yet died in poverty at the age of 36. Mind you, he wrote his first known pieces at the age of five so that was still over thirty years of composing.
I have no intention here of scaring off potential listeners, either, by getting technical or “learned.” The music on offer in this review needs no intellectualising. If I give explanations it’s only to de-mystify the music, not to make your head spin. If someone tried to describe to a non-musician how, for example, a Radiohead track is worked out, it would sound every bit as complex as explaining Mozart’s processes. And as I never tire of saying (well, all right, yes I do) you don’t need to “understand” it to enjoy it.
If you think you don’t know anything by Mozart, you’re almost certainly wrong. His “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (or “A Little Night Music”) is so well-known that there can be few who don’t know its tunes even if the title is new to them – one part was used for the film “Bugsy Malone.” Then there’s the music that used to (maybe still does) introduce The Horse Of The Year Show on television – the last movement of his “Musical Joke.” While the second movement of the 21st Piano Concerto (nowadays subtitled “Elvira Madigan” just because it was used in a film of that name) is well known from a variety of TV ads.
The only “mystery” bit for some of you will be the titles. The music I’m recommending on the disc under review goes by the name of Divertimento. This means nothing more (or less) than a piece to entertain (or divert the attention). The strange numbers K131 and K247 are also easily explained. After Mozart’s death a helpful fellow by the name of
Ludwig von Köchel spent ten years of his life tracing and cataloguing Mozart’s works, assembling them as nearly as possible in chronological order and giving each one a number to indicate where it stands in relation to all the others: so K1 (a short piano piece) was Mozart’s first known work in Köchel’s catalogue and K626, the Requiem, was his last.
OK so far? Good.
The titles of the individual movements shouldn’t cause any problems if you speak Italian, the unofficial “language of music.” Allegro simply means fast, Andante means “at a walking pace,” adagio is “very slowly.” See? It just tells you the speed of the movement. The movements called “menuetto” are dance music: the Minuet was a popular dance of the time. If Mozart had lived during the 1930s he might have written a Fox-Trot. (He would also, by then, have been ridiculously old, having been born in 1756.)
I really don’t need to describe too much of the music itself, save to draw your attention to a few high spots. This is music that would have been used in the eighteenth century to accompany a nobleman’s dinner party in much the same way that we may play CDs to liven up a party at home. It was never designed to be “intellectual,” only to entertain. And entertain it certainly does. It is “feel-good” music that lifts the spirit and which asks very little of you by way of intense concentration. It is, in short, easy to listen to, whether it accompanies a good meal, a snog on the sofa or your daily chores.
Both works are written for orchestra, K287 for two horns and strings while K131 (written when Mozart was only
sixteen) is for flute, oboe, four horns and strings).
The Adagio (slow) movement of K287 has one of those heart-stopping melodies, played softly on the violins, that lifts you up on high, while the gently teasing Allegretto of K131 has a tune that keeps running round your head long afterwards. And don't miss the sound of the four horns playing together in the following movement - a really exciting noise. Indeed, every movement has something to keep you delighted.
This Naxos disc has been in my collection for a couple of years now and I never tire of it. It is played throughout with a delightful freshness by musicians who were obviously enjoying themselves and it has a recording to match. The insert notes provide plenty of information and to be able to buy over seventy-three minutes of music-making of this quality for less than £5 is a joy.
I note here that Ciao have not put a picture of teh disc cover at the head of this op. I therefore need to add that the number, should anyone wish to order it, is 8.550996.
So go on – try it. Put it on while you do your odd jobs, whether you’re slicing onions, ironing the poodle or lancing the cat’s boil, or even while you’re reading the latest Terry Pratchett or Stephen King book. Or just listen to it.
And maybe one of my friends in the USA might smuggle a copy into the White House. You could just be saving the world.
