Andrew, I love classical music!!! I think one of the reasons SS never even mentions classical music is because he simply doesn't get the range, the vibrational subtlety, 'la raffinesse' as they say in French... When I was kid, I played the violin but my teacher told me: you're too lazy to practice (even if one has the talent, it needs 90% practice & 10% talent)! So, eventually I 'replaced' the violin with a guitar but my main instrument was always my voice, as long as I can remember - I did end up pursuing classical voice training (as well as American chestvoice for musicals) in London. Every once in a while I still like to strike up a tune. I used to perform (a-capella, please!), too, but never filling much of a room... (well, sort of...;))
As a matter of fact, I agree that Beethoven (all the Germans really are, Wagner, Haydn, Carl Orff, Brahms) is a real heavy weight - very powerful, dramatic, forceful & demanding in his work, same as the Russians, who I feel are on the same level - Rachmaninov & Schostakovich, Tchaikovsky, etc.. Liszt, is beautiful, very refined (I couldn't play the piano because my hands were too small icon_blush), I love Händel's baroque & Haydn...excellent, excellent... Someone who cannot appreciate classical music really is the poorer off, IMHO... Mozart, as you may know was the 'rockstar' in Vienna at his time. He's very childlike, playful & always somewhat mischevious in his oeuvre... More an 'opera buffa' kind of composer, talented though he was. In his own way he was a rebel, too, bucking up against his 'larger than life' father... The most famous Austrian rockstar (Falco) immortalised him in his own very rebellious song "Amadeus". Excellent song, especially if you understand the lyrics... .icon_angel
Classical music has been used in surgeries to calm the nervous system as well as heart rate & blood pressure because the un/-subconscious part of the brain still 're-'acts to the soothing vibrational frequencies emitted from this kind of music & thus also increases the likelihood of faster recovery after the patient returns from aneasthesia.:)
