Mozart, (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus 1756-91
Austrian composer

Mozart was the son of Leopold Mozart, deputy kapellmeister to the Archbishop of Salzburg. He displayed early musical gifts, playing the keyboard confidently at the age of four, composing his first pieces for it at five, and soon mastering the violin. Leopold was keen to exhibit his son's extraordinary talents along with those of his pianist-daughter, Maria-Anna or 'Nannerl' (1751-1829), and he undertook a series of tours of the European courts with them.

In 1762 they played before the Elector of Bavaria in Munich and before Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna. In 1763 they gave concerts in Munich, Augsburg, Mainz and Frankfurt before a five-month stay in Paris, which included a visit to the court of Louis XV at Versailles. They then went to London for 15 months, where a friendship was formed with J C Bach. During the next six months in the Netherlands, both children became seriously ill. In 1766 they began the homeward journey, stopping in Paris for two months, and making many appearances throughout Switzerland and Germany. Accounts of this tour mention Mozart's precocity, spirited playing and rare talent for improvisation.

In September 1767 the family went for five months to Vienna, where he wrote an opera buffa, La finta semplice ('The Feigned Simpleton') and a singspiel, Bastien und Bastienne, the latter commissioned by Dr Franz Anton Mesmer. On returning to Salzburg Mozart was appointed honorary konzertmeister to the court. There followed three extended visits by father and son to Italy (1770-72). In Rome, Mozart heard the Miserere of Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) and afterwards wrote out the parts from memory. His musical experiences on these tours helped mould his style, especially in dramatic music, although he was prolific also in writing sacred vocal pieces and instrumental works: by 1772 he had written about 25 symphonies (of which some are lost) and his first quartets. Further quartets and symphonies followed during and after a visit to Vienna in 1772, during which Mozart came into contact with the music of Haydn.

The years 1775-76 saw two stage works, La finta giardiniera ('The Feigned Gardener Girl') and Il r� pastore ('The Shepherd King'), five violin concertos, the Haffner Serenade, and Masses for the Salzburg Court Chapel. Unhappy with the austere and unmusical Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, Mozart left his service in 1777 and, travelling with his mother, sought employment elsewhere. They stayed at Mannheim, and heard the orchestra there, but no post was offered. He wrote a number of piano concertos and flute quartets, and fell in love with a singer, Aloysia Weber. Then in Paris, where his mother died in July, Mozart wrote the Paris Symphony. His father persuaded him to return to Salzburg, and he reluctantly accepted the post of court organist. At this time he composed the Symphonies (K318-19), the Coronation Mass, and the Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola. In 1780 he received an important commission from the Elector of Bavaria, for the opera seria Idomeneo, r� di Creta ('Idomeneo, King of Crete'), produced in Munich in January 1781.

In 1781 Archbishop Colloredo summoned Mozart to Vienna for the coronation of Emperor Joseph II. Again, after a stormy scene, he soon left the Archbishop's service but remained in Vienna, which became home for the rest of his short, crowded life. Here his reputation as composer and pianist was to reach its peak within a few years. Aloysia Weber had married a court actor, and Mozart turned his attentions to her sister Constanze, whom he married in 1782, shortly after the first performance of his opera Die Entf�hrung aus dem Serail ('The Abduction from the Seraglio').

Married life was happy, but insecure financially (they had six children, of whom two survived), and Mozart increased his meagre income by teaching. In 1784, the year he became a freemason, he produced six piano concertos; in 1785 a further three; in 1786 three more. This was the rich flowering of his maturity, along with six string quartets dedicated to Haydn (who had declared Mozart to be the greatest composer known to him), the Linz and Prague Symphonies and the three Italian comic masterpieces composed to libretti by Lorenzo Da Ponte: Le Nozze di Figaro (1786, The Marriage of Figaro, after Beaumarchais), Don Giovanni (first performed in Prague, 1787), and Cos� fan tutte (1790, 'Women are all Like That'). Productions of his operas were usually more successful in Prague than in Vienna. The String Quintets in C major and G minor (1787), the last three symphonies (1788), the quartets for the King of Prussia (K575, 589, 590), the serenade Eine kleine Nachtmusik, and the Clarinet Quintet mark the peak of his output of orchestral and chamber music. In 1787, Mozart's father Leopold died in Salzburg.

The letters to fellow masons in his last three years make sad reading, reflecting countless anxieties about finance or health. He hoped for new commissions or a court post on the accession of Emperor Leopold II, but none was forthcoming. In 1791 he applied unsuccessfully for the post of kapellmeister of St Stephen's Cathedral. His last works were the opera Die Zauberfl�te (The Magic Flute), based on a fairy-tale with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, and an opera seria, La Clemenza di Tito (also of 1791), a Clarinet Concerto and a Requiem. The last was written to an anonymous commission (now known to be from Count Walsegg) and was unfinished when he died on 5 December.

Mozart's apparently irresponsible way of life may have contributed to the troubles of his last years, and the childish humour exhibited in his surviving letters appears to be the antithesis of his music. For he was a universal genius of music, in its facility, grace and polish, his innate sense of phrasing and gift of melodic beauty, his mastery of form and the richness of his harmony, and his ability to portray the deepest human feelings with the most sublime and sincere musical expression.

Bibliography: Of the many general biographies of Mozart, that by Alfred Einstein (English edition 1946) is still considered the finest. See also H C Robbins Landon, Mozart and Vienna (1991) and Mozart's Last Year (2nd edition, 1989, with further bibliography); W Hildesheimer, Mozart (translated by Marion Faber, 1983); H C Robbins Landon and D Mitchell, The Mozart Companion (1956). A documentary account is given by O E Deutsch, Mozart: A Documentary Biography (1965); a selection of letters in English translation is given in E Anderson, The Letters of Mozart and His Family (3rd edition, 1985). Mozart's works were catalogued by Ludwig von K�chel and are usually cited from this catalogue (with several revisions by Alfred Einstein and later editors, 1983) with the prefix 'K'. Eduard M�rike's novella Mozart auf seine Reise nach Prag (1855, 'Mozart's Journey to Prague') is a fictional romance based on Mozart's visit to Prague for the first production there of Don Giovanni.