"I'd like to write a quartet one day. But it will be something simple, like Mozart"

I finished reading my book about Gershwin on the way to Vienna I'm sad to say. Sad because that's how I always feel when I've finished reading a really good book. That's how I felt when I finished "Love in the time of cholera" or "The Lord of the Rings" or Frida Kahlo's biography or all the other wonderful books I've read so far - you just don't want the book to end, you want it to go on and on and on...

Despite the fact that I already knew a bit about George before I started reading the book, I have to say that it was quite an eye-opener. He was quite a dichotonous fellow, our George was. I guess we all are when you think about it. On the one hand, he was full of confidence, flashy, over the top and yet, he was never able to find his niche in the flashiest of towns, Hollywood. A complete and utter workaholic, able to write the "Rhapsody in Blue" in a mere five weeks and yet addicted to partying night after night with the glitteratti. A man of the world and yet, naive enough to be able to say the words of the title of this post to Arthur Schoenberg while playing a game of tennis. I think Arthur almost gagged.

Interestingly enough, even though they are at two opposite poles when it comes to music and composing, there are a number of similarities between Gershwin and Mozart. First of all, they both began to show an interest in music because of an older sibling - Mozart at the age of three when he attended sister Anna Maria's or Nannerl's piano lessons which her father gave her when she was seven, while George was fascinated by his brother's piano playing when he was ten. Both, of course, surpassed their siblings enormously.

Another similarity is that both George and Mozart were "song pluggers" well before their compositional talents were recognised. Mozart was, as we all know, a child prodigy and toured around Europe with Nannerl and dad demonstrating their many musical talents. And of course, while on tour was influenced by the greatest composers of the time. Gershwin, even though not officially a child prodigy, was from age 15 a song plugger at Remick's, one of Tin Pan Alley's foremost publishers of popular music. It was here that Gershwin, during the almost three years he worked there doing a minimum of 10 hour a day shifts, learnt to transpose music in all 12 keys at the drop of a hat, as well as playing, and listening to, all the leading Tin Pan Alley compositions of the time.

And of course, both left this world much, much too early, just like many other great composers such as Schubert, Chopin, Scriabin, Pergolesi - Mozart at the age of 35, Gerswhin at 37. Gershwin never did get around to composing the "simple" Mozart string quartet he talked to Schoenberg about so we'll never know how he would have interpreted Mozart's "simplicity".

But isn't it funny how Mozart's compositions are seemingly "simple" to the ear? And yet, at closer hearing or when you take a sheet of his music, you see that it is very, very far from simple - in fact, there's very little that's simple about his intricate harmonies and melodies.

I have to admit that I hadn't been to a concert in ages and wanted to have a closer "hearing" of Mozart while I was in Vienna. So I treated my son and I to one while in Vienna as a birthday gift to him 'cause he's an absolute nut about Mozart - to the point that my friend Irina and I had to make him a Mozart costume for Carnevale two years ago! We did such a good job that he even won first prize at school for it!

Now, I wasn't expecting much of the concert, something more touristy than high art to be honest. I searched the internet to see what was available and came across a concert taking place on the Friday while we were there in one of the thirteen houses that Mozart lived in while in Vienna. The place is called, surprise surprise, Mozarthaus and is located just off Vienna's main square. And even less than the concert itself, I wasn't expecting much of the location.

Well, what a surprise my son and I were in for. Because I honestly could not have pictured a more beautiful setting for listening to Mozart, Haydn and Bach (I thought there'd be Schubert as well, the only disappointment I suffered that evening). I had pictured a large hall or auditorium with umpteen seats but was pleasantly surprised to walk into a smallish room - it could not have measured more than 40 square metres - with 10 times 5 rows of seats. And when we walked into the room, both our jaws simultaneously dropped to the floor and we uttered a loud "Ah!". I later saw that everyone did this upon walking in. This is how the programme describes it:

The "Concerts in the Mozart house" take place in the oldest concert hall in Vienna where Mozart used to work and play for Bishop Colloredo in 1781. Mozart lived in this house in the year 1781 from 16th March to 2nd May.

The Sala Terrena with its beautiful vault is situated on the ground floor next to the church and the sacristy. It was designed and painted in the second half of the 18th century in late Renaissance Venetian style...The grotesque scenes, the scenes of baroque sensuality, the floral paintings and the animal scenes give evidence of the purpose of this hall, as a place of pleasure for body and soul. The famous Viennese popular figure "der liebe Augustin" is also depicted here.

In the course of the renovation of this hall, it became evident that this is the oldest part of the building. Fragments of gothic frescos were found and this seems to confirm the tradition that even before the Holy Cross had existed there.

Now, the film that I took of the room isn't that great - the resolution is quite terrible - but I think it'll give you a general idea of it:




As I said, I didn't expect much of the music. But just like the setting, I was pleasantly surprised. Now don't get me wrong - they weren't the Juilliard Quartet, far from it. But it was so lovely listening to the wonderful music coming from those strings, vibrating throughout the room, how the instruments interacted, these inanimate objects coming to life and conversing with one another, and watching how the players communicated with eachother through the raising of an eyebrow or the nod of the head or a smile. Not one CD or YouTube video can capture magic like that.

And see, no matter how good or bad a live performance is, the beauty of it is that it will always capture a time, an emotion and encapsulate it in that moment. And even though the moment comes and goes, sometimes too quickly, it stays with us for a long time to come. Just like Gershwin. Just like Mozart.