Benedict & music

Feb 18, 2013

In his book “God’s Choice” (Pope Benedict and the future of the Church), the author George Weigel reflects on the influence of music on the early years of the life of Joseph Ratzinger. Weigel comments:

“Musically inclined theologians sometimes say that, while Bach is what the angels play in heaven on high days and holy days, they turn to Mozart when they’re playing for the sheer pleasure and joy of it”.

In an interview with the then Cardinal Ratzinger in 1997, the German journalist Peter Seewald asked the Cardinal if he loved the music of Mozart. The Cardinal replied:

“Yes! Although we moved around a very great deal in my childhood, the family basically always remained in the area between the Inn and the Salzach. And the largest and most important and best parts of my youth I spent in Traunstein, which very much reflects the influence of Salzburg. You might say that there Mozart thoroughly penetrated our souls, and his music still touches me very deeply, because it is so luminous and yet at the same time so deep. His music is by no means just entertainment; it contains the whole tragedy of human existence.”

In this first clip, at the end of a concert which included some  Mozart, the pope spoke about the power and significance of good music.
Here the pope plays (not Mozart but Schubert)
One of the clips below is a fake. Guess which one.

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