Mozart and more Riga

That's right, tomorrow is Mozart's 250th birthday. While Austrians are celebrating with Mozart chocolates, Mozart yogurt and even Mozart sausages, I prefer to honour Mozart by listening to his music rather than tucking into my Mozart corn flakes. That's why right now, I'm listening to a perfect recording of Cosi fan tutte. For many people, Mozart's music is the most perfect music composed, and this is probably affected by the incredible stories about this genius of a Wunderkind. The myths seem to get spiced up every now and then - when we start hearing stories about Mozart drumming the rhythm of Eine kleine Nachtmusik in his mother's womb, that'll be a clear sign (for me at least) to stop believing everything we hear.


When it comes to a warm welcome, you can't blame the POSH backpackers hostel for a lack of imagination.

I'm very happy people are taking a celebration like this seriously. The BBC, for example, is definitely going all over Mozart - check their radio programme for more details. I just completed a ten-step quiz in which I had to listen to clips of music and decide which ones were composed by Mozart. I got full points!!! Well, let's admit that the quiz was on the easy side - I had some doubts over Haydn's surprise symphony but Für Elise was something of a give-away, as was Bach's air on a G string (a WHAT??). And I'm sure the cultural programme planned for 2006 in Austria is quite mouth-watering. But I'm not that sure I'd like to be stuck in Mozart's birthplace, sandwiched between groups of Japanese tourists frantically shooting with their cameras, without having any idea where they are.


Room with a view?

I think the best way of describing the music is the word perfect. When listening to a concert with music from different composers (like I did today), something just clicks in your head at some point and there is no doubt this is Mozart. It just empties your mind. A recent BBC poll revealed the five favourite pieces of music by Mozart: the clarinet concerto ranked first (that I understand), followed by the Requiem and Ave verum corpus (this I find clichéd and can't quite agree. For me, the requiem is certainly not one of my favourite works and Ave Verum Corpus is a three-minute crowd-pleaser which I find downright boring). These were followed by the 21st piano concerto and The Marriage of Figaro, which definitely deserves its fifth place as Mozart's operas are my favourite genre in his music.


Latvian monkeys are trained to give a "high five" when they're happy life.