MOZART & THE WOLF GANG By Anthony Burgess (Vintage, $85) NIGEL Kennedy, the so-called punk of classical music, has performed dressed as Dracula, and outraged and pleased audiences in his efforts to bring classical music back to the level of popular entertainment.
Anthony Burgess doesn't dress up, but he too wishes to destroy the drawing-room intellectualism which surrounds classical music.
Mozart & the Wolf Gang is a clever romp through the history and development of music in the guise of a quirky tribute to Mozart.
Mr Burgess uses several literary conceits to make his points including developing the narrative as a screenplay, an opera libretto, an eccentric conversation between two characters called Anthony and Burgess, and a bizarre and exhausting attempt to render Mozart's 40th Symphony in prose.
The book opens in heaven where Beethoven, Mendelssohn and other assorted greats of music are assembling for a celebration of Mozart's bicentenary, the highlight of which is a recital by Mozart himself.
In between the various events, they discuss the merits of each other as men and composers as well as the evolution of different musical forms.
A major theme of the book is whether music is a universal language or can be interpreted only through an understanding of the context, be it political, social or whatever, in which these men composed.
