Mozart and Beethoven

“Mozart has the classic purity of light and the blue ocean; Beethoven the romantic grandeur which belongs to the storms of air and sea, and while the soul of Mozart seems to dwell on the ethereal peaks of Olympus, that of Beethoven climbs shuddering the storm-beaten sides of a Sinai. Blessed be they both! Each represents a moment of the ideal life, each does us good. Our love is due to both.”

Henri Frederic Amiel, Swiss philosopher, poet & critic.

Amiel, Henri Frédéric, and Ward, Humphry. Amiel’s Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel. United Kingdom, Macmillan, 1893, p.134.  Digitally archived at: https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Amiel_s_Journal/NCYoAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0, accessed 12 September 2021.


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