I don't think I should have to like everything Mozart wrote.

This Independence Day, I went to play chamber music with some friends. We played the Schubert cello quintet in C major, which I had to sightread even though I hadn't played for 5 months. I wasn't so good to begin with, but I got a lot better very quickly. That made me happy, because I was worried about it. I hate having a long break like that, but I guess having a baby is a good excuse.

After we finished, I was asked to pick a string quartet by either Mozart, Haydn, or Beethoven. My response was that it didn't really matter, except that I would rather not play Mozart.

Immediately, the first violinist, whom I had not seen for years, said, "You mean that you are not yet of an age where you can appreciate Mozart?"

Now, I appreciate Mozart. I think his operas and vocal music are absolutely unparallelled. I also think that the piano music he wrote is wonderful. However, the music he wrote for strings is hit or miss for me. Some of it is fine, some of it is amazing, but the great majority of Mozart's works for strings gets on my nerves. There is so much irritating frilly ornamentation, and the chord structure isn't very interesting.

I'm not claiming to be the expert, I'm not saying that it's bad music, I am just saying that I personally don't like it. It's a matter of OPINION, you see. And I just don't feel that my personal dislike for certain works by Mozart (read: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik) means that I am somehow stupid, or immature, or musically illiterate. I'm sure that there are many people who are much older than I am who also don't care for Mozart.

I told this violinist that it wasn't that I didn't like Mozart as a whole, I just preferred the vocal music to the instrumental music. Then he said, "But all Mozart's music is vocal."

No. It's not. Vocal music is music where you sing. I know he MEANT that Mozart's melodies have a singing quality, but I reserve the right to draw a distinction between vocal music that involves actual voices, and "vocal" music that involves violins. I happen to like one, and I happen to not like the other.

I have a great love for classical music, but I really don't understand why so many people who play it have to be so uppity and self-righteous. It's like they have all forgotten that art is subjective, instead believing that their opinion is the definitive truth about everything.

I think if the whole culture of classical music could stop being like this, more people would like it. I don't think it helps to make people feel inferior for no reason at all. It turns people off to the real value that is there in the music. I know it turned me off to performance as a career.