28 January—Whoops, missed it again. Yesterday was Wolfgang Mozart’s 267^th birthday. Sorry, Wolf. He was baptized as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. Joannes is John, of course. Chrysostomus or Chrysostom is the saint whose feast day is 27 January. We know Wolf as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart because Theophilus means God love in Greek; that becomes Gottlieb in German and Amadeus in Latin.

In his youth Wolf called himself Wolfgang Amadé or Wolfgang Gottlieb. Amadé is pseudo-French, always popular with the girls. Amadeus was likely his father’s idea, because Leopold—himself a noted composer and violinist—knew that everything sounds better in Latin.

To cut to Mozart’s belated birthday celebration, then, here are two of his opera that I’m particularly fond of. (Opera, besides being a performance of good music ruined by an invariably ludicrous stage production, is the nominative plural of Latin opus, meaning work, as in musical composition.)

The first opus, then, is the short, sparkly Rondo alla Turca (Turkish Rondo), the third movement of Mozart’s A major Piano Sonata, No. 11. It doesn’t have an opus number, but it’s number 331/300i in Köchel’s catalogue—the K. you always see with Mozart works. This performance is by a real Turk.

The second opus is Exsultate, jubilate (Exult, rejoice), a lively solo motet, almost 13 magnificent minutes. It develops subtly to conclude with a beautiful two-and-a-quarter-minute earworm of an Alleluja. This performance is by the most versatile and best coloratura soprano in the business . . .