Skip to content
Curated playlist

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

  • Haydn and MozartJoseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart left remarkably little paper evidence of their friendship. Haydn lived from 1732 to 1809, and Mozart from 1756 to 1791. Even so, one gesture from the younger man speaks loudly. In the dedication of…
  • Beethoven and MozartAround October 1790, young Beethoven accused himself of stealing a phrase from Mozart.
  • Tonkünstler-SocietätMozart's Clarinet Quintet was first heard in public at a Vienna charity concert for musicians' families.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus MozartMozart finished more than 800 works in thirty-five years and died with his Requiem unfinished.
  • Mozart and FreemasonryMozart joined a Vienna Masonic lodge at twenty-eight, seven years before he died. The lodge was called Beneficence.
  • Mozart's birthplaceMozart was born in a five-room rented apartment in Salzburg. His father was a court musician named Leopold Mozart.
  • Mozart's Berlin journeyMozart rode to Berlin in 1789 because he had no money for the trip. A prince who was his patron gave him a free seat.
  • Versuch einer gründlichen ViolinschuleLeopold Mozart's 1756 violin textbook argued that technique alone cannot make a fine violinist.
  • International Mozarteum FoundationA 1944 bombing raid destroyed two-thirds of Mozart's Salzburg home. The Foundation rebuilt it.
  • Mozart family grand tourWolfgang Mozart left Salzburg at seven and came home from a three-year tour writing symphonies.
  • Mozart's starlingMozart bought a starling singing a tune close to his new piano concerto. He wrote that it was beautiful.
  • Tanzmeisterhaus SalzburgThe Mozarts shot airguns at funny paper targets inside their Salzburg home. They called the pastime Bölzlschiessen.
  • Mozart and danceMozart once said his taste lay in dancing rather than in music.
  • Mozart and scatologyMozart's crude jokes were mostly a family habit, not a secret vice. His father, mother and sister wrote them too.
  • Mozart in ItalyMozart went to Italy at thirteen and left a commissioned opera composer. His father left without the job he wanted.
  • Death of Wolfgang Amadeus MozartMozart wept while rehearsing his Requiem the afternoon before he died. He set the score aside at the Lacrimosa.
  • Mozart and smallpoxAt 11, Mozart went unable to see for nine days with smallpox. His father had refused inoculation three years earlier.
  • Mozarthaus ViennaMozarthaus Vienna is the only Vienna apartment where Mozart lived that still stands.

Queue