![]() Discovery of the works of Bach and Handel strongly influenced his use of counterpoint in both symphonic development and operatic ensembles. For his own subscription concerts, he composed 15 remarkable piano concertos, Nos 11 to 25, for himself and his pupils to play, giving the form new prominence, depth and seriousness. In the last decade of his life, he produced a sequence of extraordinary masterpieces on which his reputation primarily rests. Tom Hulce in the title role of the 1984 film Amadeus. Mozart became a Freemason in 1784: his later correspondence with his fellow Mason Michael von Puchberg contains repeated requests for financial assistance. Though the idea that Mozart lived in poverty has been much exaggerated, the couple were frequently short of money. In 1782 he married the soprano Constanze Weber. ![]() Later that year, Mozart broke decisively if acrimoniously with Colloredo’s court, settling in Vienna as a freelance composer, performer and teacher, though in 1787, he secured a part-time position at the imperial court, primarily composing dance music. Idomeneo, Mozart’s first mature opera, was premiered in Munich in January 1781. ![]() His librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte was a friend of Casanova, while the games of erotic manipulation of Così Fan Tutte echo those of Laclos’s 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Mozart also lived at a time when an emerging bourgeoisie began to challenge aristocratic assumptions about privilege and libertinage, which strongly colours the emphasis on class conflict and differing codes of sexual behaviour in his later operas. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, also a composer, encouraged ideas of sensibility and subjectivity, and Bastien und Bastienne parodies Rousseau’s 1752 opera Le Devin du Village. Mozart lived during the closing years of the Enlightenment, when the philosophical rationalism of the early 18th century was challenged by cults of feeling that pre-empted Romanticism. The Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola – among the first works to use the viola as a solo instrument – dates from 1779. His five violin concertos were composed between 17: the adagio of the Third is an exquisite example of his bittersweet melodic style. Many of his symphonies date from this period, as does his first important piano concerto, No 9 in E Flat K271, commonly known as the “Jeunehomme”. He came to detest Salzburg as restrictive, though his years in the city saw the gradual consolidation of his style. Reflecting a contemporary fascination with erotic manipulation. When he was 17, he entered the service of the new Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymus von Colloredo, though he was later permitted to make forays elsewhere, to Paris and Mannheim in 1777-78, finally without Leopold, and Munich in 1780-81. Mozart wrote his first opera, the Latin intermezzo Apollo et Hyacinthus, when he was 11, following it a year later with Bastien und Bastienne, a singspiel (a work in German with spoken dialogue) and the Italian comedy La Finta Semplice. Wolfgang absorbed and assimilated the music he heard during their travels, composing his first symphony when he was eight, in London, where the Mozarts encountered Johann Christian Bach (Johann Sebastian’s youngest son), whose own symphonies influenced the boy’s work. From the age of six, Leopold took his “miracle” son on extended tours of Europe, exhibiting him at courts and academies, where his precocity as both composer and pianist was much admired. Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) was determined to exploit Wolfgang’s talent, which was apparent by the time he was five, when he composed his first pieces. He was born in Salzburg, the son of a composer-violinist at the city’s archiepiscopal court. Mozart’s Symphony No 40 in G minor played by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Nikolaus Harnoncourt – video His life … ![]()
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