Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Life and legacy

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 in Salzburg, the seventh and last child of Leopold Mozart, a respected composer and violinist in the service of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, and Anna Maria Pertl. Only Wolfgang and his elder sister Maria Anna (called "Nannerl") survived infancy. Leopold quickly recognized his son's prodigious gifts: by the age of five, Wolfgang was composing short pieces, and by six he was performing before European royalty. Leopold took his children on an extended concert tour of Europe from 1763 to 1766, during which the young Mozart astonished audiences in Munich, Paris, London, and The Hague.

Mozart's mature career was shaped by his restless search for a position worthy of his abilities. After years of increasingly unhappy service to the Archbishop of Salzburg, he broke free in 1781 and settled in Vienna as a freelance musician - a bold and risky move in an era when composers depended on aristocratic patronage. In Vienna he achieved considerable success: his piano concertos, performed with himself as soloist, drew fashionable audiences; his opera Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio, 1782) was a triumph; and he entered the most creatively productive period of his life.

Mozart's operatic masterpieces are among the supreme achievements of Western art. Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro, 1786), composed to a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, is a comedy of dazzling musical and dramatic sophistication. Don Giovanni (1787), also with Da Ponte, blends comedy and tragedy in ways that anticipated Romanticism. Cosi fan tutte (1790) is a study of love and fidelity of unparalleled subtlety. Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute, 1791), written for a popular Viennese theater, combines fairy tale, Masonic symbolism, and some of Mozart's most sublime music.

Beyond opera, Mozart's output in every genre was extraordinary. His last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40, and 41 "Jupiter"), composed in a remarkable six-week burst during the summer of 1788, represent the pinnacle of Classical symphonic writing. His piano concertos, string quartets, and chamber works are cornerstones of their respective repertoires. In all, he completed more than 800 works in a career of barely twenty-five years.

Mozart's final year, 1791, was one of feverish creativity. In addition to Die Zauberflote and the Clarinet Concerto, he worked on a Requiem Mass commissioned by an anonymous patron (later identified as Count Franz von Walsegg). He fell seriously ill in November and died on 5 December 1791, at the age of thirty-five, leaving the Requiem unfinished. The cause of death remains debated; contemporary records list "severe miliary fever." Mozart was buried in a common grave in Vienna's St. Marx Cemetery, as was customary for the time. His music, however, has proved immortal.

Key accomplishments

• Composed over 800 works, including 41 symphonies, 27 piano concertos, and 22 operas
• Created operatic masterpieces including The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute
• Wrote the last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40, and 41 "Jupiter") in six weeks during the summer of 1788
• Performed as a child prodigy across Europe, playing for royalty from the age of six
• Composed the Requiem in D minor, left unfinished at his death and completed by his student Franz Xaver Sussmayr

Quotes

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.

Attributed; from a letter, though exact provenance is debated

Related figures