Just to keep you on your toes amid all the Mozart-related hoopla, here’s the first paragraph of an essay on Haydn I wrote for Commentary:
In 1945, Arturo Toscanini told the music critic B.H. Haggin that he preferred Haydn to Mozart. “I will tell you frankly: sometimes I find Mozart boring,” he said to his astonished interviewer. “Not G-minor [the G Minor Symphony, K. 550]: that is great tragedy; and not concerti; but other music. Is always beautiful–but is always the same.”
I don’t agree, but I do know what he meant.
(If you’re curious, this CD contains Toscanini’s recordings of the Mozart G Minor and Haydn “Surprise” symphonies.)