ISSUES OF INTERPRETING THE CLASSICAL STYLE

Abstract

Listening to Mozart's works, we can notice that their common feature is cantability. Leopold Mozart believed that technique is indispensable for any musician, but technical virtuosity, as an end in itself, is one of the greatest defects, just as the ability to construct a beautiful phrasing is one of the greatest qualities of a performer. From Mozart's correspondence with his father, it can be deduced that they had the same conceptions regarding poetics and musical aesthetics: the cantability must result from the way they phrase. Cantability thus becomes an aesthetic category that, along with the narrative meaning, defines the entire creation of Mozart's opera, contaminating even his instrumental music, giving the latter an unprecedented theatricality.