A Tribute to My Old Friend Wolfie

     It's Wolfie's birthday today—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, that is—and I just wanted to take a moment to thank him for everything he's given me and done for me.
     Our friendship got off to a bit of a rocky start. Before Wolfie and I met, my best musical friend was Johann (Sebastian Bach). Johann and I hit it off from the very beginning. It seems my hands were made to play his music, and my sensibilities felt at home with it. Whenever I played or listened to him, I felt an almost visceral connection; something ancient and sacred stirred in the depths of my soul. Our friendship triggered my lifelong passion for early music.
     Maybe because I was so naturally in tune with Johann, I was initially uncomfortable with Wolfie. I can't remember what my first Mozart piece was—I suppose it was the Sonata in C, K. 545, the first Mozart sonata for most young pianists. However, I do remember that my first Mozart concerto happened to be one of his most difficult, the D Major No. 26 ("Coronation"). Why that particular one? Just because my teacher, Myrna von Nimitz, happened to have a score of it at hand when she decided I should try a Mozart concerto. I was 14 at the time.
     Now, Myrna had a slightly manipulative streak. While I struggled to make sense of Mozart—the subtlety of him, his humor, pathos, elegance, and exuberance—Myrna constantly reminded me that another of her students, who happened to be my age and (at that time) at the same pianistic level, was a natural whiz at Mozart. She never experienced anything like the struggle I was going through. Myrna never wasted an opportunity to compare my Mozart with hers, and always unfavorably. Maybe she was trying to light a fire under me; who knows?
     I don't know if it actually was Myrna's jibes, or something mysterious in my musical makeup, but somehow "things" fell into place between Wolfie and me, luckily before I began using his Concerto 26 in competitions (and earning prizes with it). All I do know is, once he and I finally meshed, we became the very best of friends. He, along with Johann, was my "calling card" composer, my specialty. Our friendship grew even stronger when I moved years later from solo pianist to opera coach and répétiteur; never was I so happy as when I was assigned to a Mozart opera. And when my technique and musical sensibilities needed to be purged of too much Puccini, Strauss, or Wagner, or one of the many harrowing new operas HGO was so fond of premiering, I would take out my well-worn score of Mozart sonatas and avail myself of their purifying elixir.
     I thank you, dearest Wolfie, not only for your genius, but for keeping me sane and musically grounded. You are a true friend and I will always love you.