Or actually, both.
I mean, composers like Cimarosa and Scarlatti were just as good-and they had impressive output. Maybe it’s just history-Salieri was far more popular than Mozart (in his time). In fact, Salieri won a judged competition between him and Mozart.
I think the Bach worship is pretty justified. He was truly great. I’ve never heard of Cimarosa, and Scarlatti seems appreciated but not on Bach’s level.
I don’t know if Salieri was as “popular” as Mozart in their day. Salieri was known more for his sacred music (though he did operas, too). I think it would be tough to compare the two. The most popular and famous composer at that time, however, seems unequivocally to have been Haydn.
This is an interesting thread. Just an FYI, for those might have seen and liked Phil Grabsky’s two (admittedly simplistic) Musidocs
and
his new one is
In Search of Haydn, and it really gets across just how popular and prolific Haydn was in his day. Mozart looked up to him, and Beethoven studied under him. It was fascinating, just like the other two, and I learned a lot about Haydn, but I didn’t recognize one piece of music in the documentary. There’s a lot to be said for popular culture, movies and TV (like Amadeus, Trading Places, A Clockwork Orange), introducing people to classical music. For the unwashed masses (of which I absolutely include myself) it’s a good intro to composers.
Grabsky’s next one will be In Search of Chopin, btw. I saw him at a Q&A after the film, and I think he said he wants to do Bach after that.