Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Wunderkind

Mozart’s prodigious talent was evident from his earliest childhood in Salzburg.  His father, Leopold, a deputy Kapellmeister to the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg and a minor composer-teacher, saw the amazing musical and financial potential in his son, and gave up his own career to plunge the 5-year-old Wolfgang and his 11-year-old sister Maria Anna onto the concert circuit.  The unfortunate prodigies were paraded in front of European royalties; and during these tours of Munich, Paris, London, and Italy, Wolfgang assimilated many of the different styles of music he heard, and began composing himself. 

By his teenage years, he had already composed symphonies and the occasional instrumental divertimenti, harpsichord pieces, four settings of the mass, a couple of Singspiele (light operas), and two full scale operas by then.  Mozart was then seeking for a full time post in Vienna where he could further hone his talents.  Though his job search was unsuccessful, he came across Haydn’s music that inspired him to write his two first great symphonies, nos. 25 in G minor, K183, and 29 in A, K201. 

Mozart eventually found employment in Salzburg as concertmaster in the prince-archbishop’s court in 1775, where he wrote some church music, a few orchestral pieces, and his first violin and piano concertos.  His chance to make it big came when he received a commission to 1780 that resulted in his first operatic success, Idomeneo, performed in Munich in January 1781.  Having discovered a taste for the high life, Mozart resigned from his post as concertmaster and left for the bright lights of Vienna in 1781.

The year 1782 was a turning point for Mozart.  He was finally getting the success he deserved–not as a Wunderkind, but as a serious and gifted composer.  He had also managed by the move to escape the avaricious clutches of his overbearing father, and was displaying real signs of maturity.  While in Mannheim, Mozart had fallen in love with Aloysia Weber (a cousin of the composer Carl Maria), but his advances were rejected; in 1782, he married her sister Constanze.

Mozart spent the rest of his life in Vienna.  He realized that he didn’t need a wealthy patron, and established himself as one of the first truly independent composers.  He lived pretty well by playing the piano, publishing sonatas (for solo piano, and piano and violin), and the occasional opera commission.  Between 1782 and 1786, he wrote 15 piano concertos including some of his best works, creating a name for himself as a composer and pianist; and most important of all was the set of 6 string quartets that he dedicated to Haydn, displaying his total command of the genre.

The final five years of his life were mostly consumed with opera: Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Don Giovanni, Cosí fan Tutte, and Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), which took traditional Italian opera and German Singspiel to heights hitherto unexpected.  But he still found time to write instrumental music–piano sonatas, violin sonatas, string quartets and quintets, concertos for various instruments, and his last 4 symphonies.  Mozart found himself in financial trouble when his appeal as a pianist in Vienna started to decline.  He was depending more on commissions to sustain his lavish lifestyle.  He was overworked and ill when he received a mysterious commission to write a requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death at age 35.

More classical music treats:

• Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-tempered Musician
• Ludwig Van Beethoven: The Extraordinary Genius
• Hector Berlioz: Truly Fantastique
• Johannes Brahms: The Classical Romantic
• Frederic Chopin: The Poet of the Piano
• George Frideric Handel: The Harmonious Tunesmith
• Franz Joseph Haydn: Father of The Symphony
• Felix Mendelssohn: The Midsummer Night’s Dreamer
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Wunderkind
• Franz Schubert: The Great Lieder
• Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest