Mozart's concerto in C-minor at a
concert in the Augarten.)

119. "'Die Zauberflote' will always remain Mozart's greatest work, for
in it he for the first time showed himself to be a German musician. 'Don
Juan' still has the complete Italian cut; besides our sacred art
ought never permit itself to be degraded to the level of a foil for so
scandalous a subject."

(A remark reported by Seyfried.)

["Hozalka says that in 1820-21, as near as he can recollect, the wife
of a Major Baumgarten took boy boarders in the house then standing where
the Musikverein's Saal now is, and that Beethoven's nephew was placed
with her. Her sister, Baronin Born, lived with her. One evening Hozalka,
then a young man, called there and found only Baronin Born at home. Soon
another caller came and stayed to tea. It was Beethoven. Among other
topics Mozart came on the tapis, and the Born asked Beethoven (in
writing, of course) which of Mozart's operas he thought most of. 'Die
Zauberflote' said Beethoven, and, suddenly clasping his hands and
throwing up his eyes, exclaimed: 'Oh, Mozart!'" From A. W. Thayer's
notebooks, reprinted in "Music and Manners in the Classical Period,"
page 198. H. E. K.]

120. "Say all conceivable pretty things to Cherubini,--that there is
nothing I so ardently desire as that we should soon get another opera
from him, and that of all our contemporaries I have the highest regard
for him."

(May 6, 1823, to Louis Schlasser, afterward chapel master in Darmstadt,
who was about to undertake a journey to Paris. See note to No. 112.)

121. "Among all the composers alive Cherubini is the most worthy of
respect. I am in complete agreement, too, with his conception of the
'Requiem,' and if ever I come to write one I shall take note of many
things."

(Remark reported by Seyfried. See No. 112.)

122. "Whoever studies Clementi thoroughly has simultaneously also
learned Mozart and other authors; inversely, however, this is not the
case."

(Reported by Schindler.)

123. "There is much good in Spontini; he understands theatrical effect
and martial noises admirably.

"Spohr is so rich in dissonances; pleasure in his music is marred by his
chromatic melody.

"His name ought not to be Bach (brook), but Ocean, because of his
infinite and inexhaustible wealth of tonal combinations and harmonies.
Bach is the ideal of an organist."

(In Baden, 1824, to Freudenberg.)

124. "The lit