Harnoncourt:  Thoughts on Monteverdi, Bach and Mozart

​

Mozart was not an innovator in his art, as were Wagner and Monteverdi; he did not want to reform music. In the tonal language of his time he found the resources to say and express everything he wanted. Everything that we believe we recognize as “typical Mozart” is also found in the works of his contemporaries. Mozart’s personal style of composition cannot be defined, it does not distinguish itself from the style of his age—except by its incomprehensible greatness. Without inventing or using the musically unprecedented, the completely novel, he could, employing the same resources as any other composer of his age, convey insights with his music as no other. This puzzles us: We cannot explain it, nor can we understand it.