Original subtitles

How did contemporaries describe the composer

whose music we are about to hear?

"Small and fussy,

"with a slightly stupid look in his eyes.

"All in all, an unprepossessing figure.

"Plumpish,

"just over five feet tall,

"always on the move,

"with a large head, a fleshy nose

"and pock-marked skin -

"not very attractive to look at.

"He had pale blue eyes

"and blond hair.

"His vague, distracted expression

"was due to short-sightedness.

"As a result of long journeys

"on inadequate fare

"he suffered from rickets.

"His deformed skull,

"bossed forehead, diminutive stature,

"and misshapen hands

"are all signs of the disease."

This is Mozart.

He had pale blue eyes

and blond hair.

His vague, distracted expression

was due to short-sightedness.

As a result of long journeys

on inadequate fare,

he suffered from rickets.

His oversized head, diminutive stature,

and misshapen hands

are signs of the disease.

Mozart died in 1791.

"On the night of 4th-5th December,

"the Royal Composer Mozart passed away.

"Famous from childhood

"for his outstanding musical talent,

"through a combination of natural genius,

"inherited ability and steady application

"he achieved the consummate mastery

"to which his works bear witness.

"Charming and universally loved,

"they cannot but remind us of the irreparable loss to music

"his death represents."

In the words of a Viennese newspaper,

"On the 4th of this month, in the small hours,

"the Royal Composer to the Emperor, Wolfgang Mozart,

"famous throughout Europe,

"came to the end of his short, 35-year life.

"Even the greatest in the field

"were amazed by the rare talent of this great musician.

"But what has this highly talented man

"left behind him?

"Everlasting fame,

"a helpless widow, two small children

"and unpaid debts.

"One of his children, though still only little,

"already plays the clavichord

"so well that he amazes and impresses his listeners.

"It was said by many that Mozart was a Freemason

"and some documents suggest

"that his death may have been the work of the Freemasons."

From a Berlin newspaper:

"Mozart has died.

"He was already ill when he returned from Prague

"and his health declined daily from that point on.

"He may have had dropsy.

"He died in Vienna at the end of last week.

"Because of the severe swelling of the corpse,

"it has been suggested that he may have been poisoned."

Imagine the strength this extraordinary, unique being

must have needed

to take his place amongst people,

to defend the place

for which he was destined

by God and Providence.

What hard, cramped lives people live!

How cruel and merciless

people can be.

What a light touch!

We are now going to hear the music of Olivier Messiaen,

a modern French composer.

Listen carefully.

Listen carefully to the music

and try to feel the sounds,

feel how the voices in this work combine with one another.

Messiaen didn't come to music by accident.

His spirit and his talent

prove his devotion to music.

But he is a man of our time.

Is there harmony in this music?

Isn't each note a separate sound?

Doesn't each note assert its own value?

Sometimes, when I listen to Messiaen,

it seems to me that I am not listening to music

but to the instrument tuning up all by itself.

There is no composer,

just a piano in an empty room

and the sound

is not the result of the touch of warm fingers on cold keys,

but is merely a sound generating itself.

In February, 1778,

Mozart and his mother were in Paris, looking for work.

Mozart's mother wrote to her husband

that she would sit all day long

alone in their little room, as if under arrest,

that the room was dark and uncomfortable,

and that its windows faced onto the light-well.

To crown Mozart's sorrows,

in July of that year

his mother died.

She was 57.

In a letter to a friend, he wrote:

"My dear friend,

"weep with me on this, the saddest day of my life.

"I am writing at two in the morning to tell you this:

"My darling Mama is no more.

"The Lord has claimed her.

"He was waiting for her.

"I accept this,

"and submit to the will of the Lord.

"He has given and he has taken away.

"But what grief, what anguish

"what terrible strain

"I have experienced over the last two weeks!

"She died without knowing it -

"out like a candle.

"Three days before she died,

"she confessed and received Communion,

"she received the Blessed Sacrament.

"She was delirious all through the last three days,

"but today, at twenty-one minutes past five,

"it became clear that she was close to death.

"She was completely unaware of her surroundings.

"I pressed her hand and she started to talk,

"neither seeing nor hearing me, not conscious of anything.

"Exactly five hours went by in the same way

"until, at twenty-one minutes past eleven in the evening,

"she passed away."

Mozart's 19th Piano Concerto,

Second Movement.

You are now going to hear

part of Beethoven's 7th Symphony,

Second Movement.

Mozart and Beethoven

are beings from the same civilisation.

Both are extraordinarily, immensely gifted.

They have many more similarities

than differences.

The more remarkable and outstanding

a person is,

the more difficult and contradictory

their relationship with life -

this life on earth.

These beings stand little chance of being reconciled to life.

Little chance.

This is the Second Movement of Mozart's 23rd Piano Concerto.

Let us listen to it again, so as to remember it,

to keep it in our souls.

Let us gratefully remember the eternal Mozart,

the martyr.

Always on the move,

with his fleshy nose

and pock-marked skin,

he was not attractive to look at.

He had pale blue eyes

and blond hair.

His vague, distracted expression

was due to short-sightedness.