random thoughts about music

Here are some thoughts that have passed through my head during the last couple of days of rehearsals:

• Mozart really is a great composer (Norman Lebrecht notwithstanding)
• Composer John Adams just might have the best copyist in the business
• Choruses will, without fail, laugh at all the conductor’s jokes
• Playing softly is much more difficult than playing loudly
• The Robert Levin completion of the Mozart Requiem is way cool
• The Lacrimosa movement from the Mozart Requiem is the most beautiful piece of music ever written
• I wish I could play the Ravel Violin Sonata
• Cellist Stephen Kates and violinist Berl Senofsky may be two of the most underrated great musicians of all time