Note 119 — MUSICAL OBSERVATIONS.[109]
Reading edition
The reader may deem it not uninteresting to be made acquainted with Mozart's opinion with reference to the unsatisfactory manner in which his compositions were sometimes performed. In the Biography published by H. von Nissen and Mozart's widow, we find, at p. 27, the following passage:—"Mozart complained bitterly of the injury which his compositions frequently sustained by faulty performance, especially by a too great acceleration of the tempo. They think that this rapidity imparts fire to the composition; but truly if there is not fire in the music itself, it can never be galloped into it." (These were Mozart's own words.)