Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart, along with Haydn and Beethoven, defined the musical style and period now called Viennese Classicism. Shortly after Mozart’s death, Count Waldstein perfectly expressed its lineage when he wrote to Beethoven, upon his departure for Vienna from his native Bonn, “You shall receive the spirit of Mozart from Haydn’s hands.” This statement confirms the central position Mozart played in this late 18th-century musical triad—both as a remarkably gifted and admired instrumental virtuoso, and as a prolific composer of works universally acknowledged beyond his time as pinnacles of opera, keyboard, chamber, orchestral, and vocal music.

Early Years: Child Prodigy and Early Travels, 1756–1773

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptized Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophilus, was born in Salzburg on January 27, 1756, the youngest child of the archiepiscopal court musician Leopold Mozart (1719–1787) and his wife Anna Maria, née Pertl. His sister Maria Anna (1751–1829), called Nannerl, was five years his senior and became a skilled keyboardist in her own right. At the ages of five and six, Wolfgang demonstrated outstanding musical talent on the keyboard and violin; Leopold proudly presented him at the Salzburg court and, in 1762, also in Munich, Prague, and Vienna. These successes encouraged Leopold to undertake a more extensive European concert tour from June 1763 through December 1766, with both children performing. Wolfgang increasingly also presented compositions of his own, among them 16 sonatas for keyboard and violin and several symphonies. The journey included court appearances in Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and, on the journey back home, Paris, Zurich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. Of significant influence were his 1764–65 visits with Johann Christian Bach (the youngest son of Johann Sebastian) in London.

Leopold Mozart, who had generous patrons in the Salzburg Prince-Archbishops, was able to continue his son’s education and musical training from the end of 1767 until the beginning of 1769 in Vienna. At the age of 12, the young Mozart had already made a name for himself as a composer of opera. His La finta semplice (1768) was followed by three commissions involving long periods spent in Milan: Mitridate, Re di Ponto (1770), Ascanio in Alba (1771) and Lucio Silla (1772).

Middle Period: Concertmaster in Salzburg, 1773–1781

Before Mozart’s first journey in 1770 to Italy, Archbishop Schrattenbach conferred upon him the honorary title of concertmaster at age 14. But soon after Archbishop Colloredo’s accession in 1772, he was appointed salaried concertmaster, in which capacity he led the court orchestra and composed for performances both at the princely residence and the cathedral. And as the piano was his principal instrument, he composed a set of piano sonatas (K. 279–284) and the Piano Concertos Nos. 5–10. An excellent violinist as well, he wrote five violin concertos for himself between 1773 and 1775.

Mozart Sonata in C major for Violin and Piano, K. 296

Feeling increasingly unhappy in Salzburg, and as Archbishop Colloredo did not support opera, Mozart took a leave in September 1777 and traveled to Mannheim and Paris, accompanied by his mother. It was in Paris that he called himself Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, and he maintained this name from then on. However, despite valuable experiences and considerable success as a pianist and composer, the journey ended in disappointment. Neither in Manheim nor in Paris did he find a position; moreover, his mother died of typhus in Paris. Mozart had to return to service in Salzburg, but his father managed to get him a well-paid post as court organist, in which capacity he composed masses and other sacred works, more than a dozen symphonies, and piano sonatas. In the autumn of 1780, he was invited to the Munich court to prepare for the premiere, in early 1781, of Idomeneo, his first mature opera. 

Late Period: Vienna, 1781–1791

Freelancing in Vienna, 1781–1787

At the beginning of 1781, Archbishop Colloredo summoned his best musicians to join him for a state visit in Vienna. There, Mozart’s request to leave Colloredo’s service was refused, but he nevertheless remained in Vienna without authorization and became one of the first artists to establish himself as a freelance musician. He soon gained attention as a piano virtuoso, established a successful teaching studio, and in August 1782, after a not entirely smooth courtship, married the singer Constanze Weber (1762–1842), with whom he had seven children. (Only two survived.)

From 1781 to 1787 he composed many piano works and no fewer than 15 piano concertos, whose innovative scoring (starting in 1784 with K. 450) essentially created a new orchestral style with more active winds. He also wrote chamber works for strings and winds, with and without piano, and refined his compositional experience, especially through a set of string quartets which he later dedicated to Haydn. Three German and Italian operas added to his fame: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782), Le nozze di Figaro (1786), and Don Giovanni (1787)—the latter two on librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte.

Mozart: Quartet in C major for Strings, K. 465, “Dissonance”

In the Emperor’s Service, 1788–1791

After the death in November 1787 of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Emperor Joseph II reorganized the musical leadership at the Vienna court. He split Gluck’s earnings of 2,000 florins by making Antonio Salieri court Kapellmeister and head of the Italian court opera—a largely administrative assignment with a salary of 1,200 fl.—and by appointing Mozart to the newly created post of Kompositeur to the k.k. Kammermusik (composer of court chamber music) for a salary of 800 fl. As the position practically amounted to a composing stipend, it prompted a flurry of instrumental works, including trios, quartets, and quintets, as well as concertos and a trilogy of grand symphonies, Nos. 39–41. In 1789 he undertook a successful concert trip to Dresden, Leipzig, and Berlin. Later in the same year he composed Così fan tutte, his third da Ponte opera, initially begun by Salieri, but who then turned it over to Mozart.

Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in C minor for String Quartet, K. 546

In 1791 he added two operas: La clemenza di Tito, for the coronation of Leopold II, and Die Zauberflöte, a commission by the impresario, actor, and librettist Emanuel Schikaneder, and Mozart’s greatest musical triumph. However, his career, then truly on the rise, was cut short when he suddenly died on December 5, 1791, at the age of 35, after a brief illness and while at work on a Requiem that had been commissioned a few months earlier. Its opening movement was made ready for a performance at the funeral service on December 10 at St. Michael’s Church, but the remainder of the work was completed in 1792 by his student Franz Xaver Süssmayr. He was survived by his 29-year-old widow Constanze and their two sons, Carl Thomas (b. 1784) and Franz Xaver Wolfgang (b. 1791).

Constanze sold the Mozart scores in her possession to the publisher Johann Anton André in Offenbach, who published the first edition of the complete Mozart works. In 1809 she married the Danish diplomat Georg Nikolaus von Nissen (1761–1826), whose Mozart biography of 1829 is largely based on authentic information. After Constanze’s death in 1842, her estate (including Mozart’s instruments, letters, and music manuscripts) ended up in what eventually became the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg.

Watching and Listening

There is a wealth of recorded Mozart available in both audio and video formats. The complete works are available in performances by internationally acclaimed performers. YouTube and other online resources provide easy access to any vocal or instrumental title. Moreover, the CMS Digital Archive contains an abundance of Mozart programs of various kinds, such as The Genius of Mozart, Mozart Quintets, and Mozart in 1786.

Videos from the Archive:

More Videos