A pinch of Saltzburg

250th anniversary of Mozart's birth - am I alone in thinking "so what"? Firstly there's this whole business of anniversaries. Does Mozart or his music become more important or relevant today than yesterday, or than on any other date you wish to pick at random from the last 240-odd years? We count in tens because of the biological accident of having ten little waggly things on the end of our arms - if we were the Simpsons we'd count in eights, and doubtless be celebrating the 256th anniversary of his birth. And then there's Mozart himself. No question that he was a child prodigy with an ear for wonderful melodies and a keen sense of what his audiences wanted to hear, but was he any more than that? I know it's virtually heresy to suggest anything other than that every note he produced was a work of genius, but to me much of what he wrote was nothing more than musical wallpaper - very good and classy wallpaper to be sure, but wallpaper nontheless. Of course, what might have been had he not died young is anybody's guess, but I think we need to keep a sense of perspective.