Very helpful. Not!

Roger (and Cassie and Abby) were here last night too, and at one point Roger asked me about a book on one of the living room tables, Getting the most out of Mozart: The instrumental works. I told him it wasn't much good (despite its receiving 5 stars on Amazon), but that maybe I wasn't being fair: I haven't been able to make it much past page 5:

. . . what distinguishes Mozart's works above all else (expressively speaking) is their humanity. His music is "about" people; even his instrumental music treats melodies like characters in a play or [an] opera, and in all his best pieces, these characters come alive. They laugh, cry, live, die, and evolve through their experiences over the course of a given movement or work.

Good gravy! This is the most distinguishing feature of Mozart's music? Will that help you, next time you're in the car, decide whether the piece on the radio is by Mozart or Haydn or Schubert or Schumann or Salieri or even Beethoven or Tchaikovsky? Me neither. Thanks very much, Mr. Hurwitz.

PS I feel pretty sure that this is the first and the last time that Cassie and Abby will be relegated to parentheses.