Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Austrian Classical genius; over 600 works in 35 years
1756
1791
Austrian
Classical
The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Symphony No. 41
Early life
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 in Salzburg, in the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg (now Austria). His father, Leopold Mozart, was a distinguished violinist, composer, and author of an influential treatise on violin playing. Leopold recognised his son's extraordinary gifts almost immediately — the boy was composing by five and performing before European royalty by six. Between 1763 and 1773 the family undertook a series of extended tours across Europe, visiting Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, and Italy, exposing the young Mozart to virtually every musical style of the age and allowing him to absorb influences with astonishing rapidity.
Career and major works
After years of increasing frustration in the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg, Mozart settled in Vienna in 1781, initially supporting himself through teaching, publishing, and a series of subscription concerts that showcased his piano concertos — the seventeen concertos he composed between 1782 and 1786 are among the supreme achievements of the form. His operatic masterpieces, composed in collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte — Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790) — represent the pinnacle of comic opera. Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute, 1791) and La clemenza di Tito (1791) were composed in the final months of his life. His other major works include the 'Jupiter' Symphony No. 41 (1788), the Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola (1779), the Clarinet Concerto (1791), the Requiem in D minor (left unfinished at his death and completed by his pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr), and a wealth of chamber music including the six quartets dedicated to Haydn and the Clarinet Quintet.
Musical style and legacy
Mozart's music is characterised by melodic perfection, formal elegance, emotional depth concealed beneath apparent effortlessness, and a dramatic instinct that brings every genre he touched to its highest expression. He died in Vienna on 5 December 1791, at the age of thirty-five, leaving a catalogue of over six hundred works that defines the Classical era.