Mozart: A Bicentennial Tribute by Wendy Thompson

 Mozart: A Bicentennial Tribute by Wendy Thompson

The name Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is synonymous with the archetypal prodigy, the boy who started composing at five, toured the courts of Europe as a child, astounding monarchs with his amazing aptitude for keyboard playing and improvisation; who at fourteen copied out from memory a complex choral piece heard once in the Sistine Chapel, and who died impecunious at age 35 to be buried in a pauper’s grave.

Mozart follows this incredible life, from his first compositions to his search for success in the music capitals of Europe; his rejection of a music career in the stifling and menial employ of wealthy patrons--forced on most musicians at that time--and his rebuttal of his conformist father’s ambitions, leaving provincial Salzburg to follow an unstable path as a freelance musician in cosmopolitan Vienna. The author traces Mozart’s initial musical triumphs, hailed as a youthful prodigy, the maturing of his talent, and his decline in popularity as jealousies and court intrigue combined to deny him the lucrative commissions vital to his musical and physical survival. It is a story of a very human genius revealed to us through contemporary letters and documents. Mozart was himself a lively and perceptive correspondent: his letters reveal the very close relationship with his family, his appreciation of his father’s solicitude and devotion, and his deep affection for his wife. He was bluntly scathing about his less gifted contemporaries, yet happy to give credit where due and openly declared his debt to such great composers as J. S. Bach and his own contemporary, Haydn. It is also a story of fabulous court opulence in the great cities of Europe--Salzburg, Paris, London, Vienna and Prague--of their political background and the coloratura of contemporary customs and culture.

Mozart is illustrated throughout in full color, with contemporary engravings, paints, title pages of first editions, facsimiles of the original scores, representations of performances, and images of the cities, palaces, opera houses and concert halls which first heard the wonderful music which still moves, delights, fascinates and astounds us.

Author: Wendy Thompson was educated at the Royal College of Music and at King’s College, London and has since worked in music publishing for the BBC’s Music Division, and as a freelance writer and violinist. She has contributed articles to various music publications and has compiled numerous programme notes for the BBC and other organizations.

Table of Contents:
1. Musician and Man
2. ‘The miracle God let be born in Salzburg’
3. Vienna and Italy
4. Life in Salzburg 1773-1777
5. ‘Off you go to Paris’
6. Idomeneo
7. The Breakthrough
8. ‘The greatest composer known to me’
9. The End
10. Aftermath: The Legend
Selective Worklist
Index
Select Bibliography

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