The Great Composers: Mozart; Meet the Musicians: Mozart

Actor/musician Dennis Kobray has been performing music "in character" for the past 12 years in and around the New York City area, bringing to life great composers for music enrichment programs in libraries and schools. In this video, Kobray, dressed in period costume, portrays an enthusiastic and voluble Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He provides a detailed picture of Mozart's relatively brief life, replete with anecdotes and a reasonable dose of music. Kobray is a good pianist, which allows him to sit at the keyboard playing excerpts from minuets, concertos and sonatas while discussing the music--a nice touch. As the program unfolds, viewers are also treated to samples from Mozart's operas and symphonies. The video is clearly aimed at children and teens (ages 6 to 16, roughly) who are unfamiliar with classical composers and their musical forms. Kobray's performance as Mozart is perhaps a bit large for the intimacy of the camera, but, after all, he is used to working in concert halls, theatres and auditoriums. His command of Mozart's personal history is excellent, however, and his love of Mozart's music is bound to attract new disciples to the ranks of Mozart fans. Overall, this is a commendable and instructive video. Meet the Composers: Beethoven is also available. Recommended. Aud: E, I, J, H, P.The Great Composers: Mozart provides an overview of the life of Mozart and several samples of his works. It is not, however, a program particularly aimed at young people and, since it is half the length of the Meet the Musicians version, less detail is offered in this relatively academic assessment of Mozart's life and work. While the production values here are quite good, the individual titles in The Great Composers series (which includes 14 titles on classical composers such as Haydn, Brahms, Chopin and Mendelssohn) cost about $71, which is significantly higher than the price of a Meet the Musicians title, and for that price you'll get less detail about Mozart and less of his music. Very optional. Aud: H, C, P. (P. Van Vleck)