Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Was Mozart really the boy genius of mythology? He was stunningly talented, dazzling audiences across Europe with his playing and precocious compositions before he turned 10. But perhaps the greatest miracle is that he kept on developing, reaching new dazzling heights and plumbing new emotional depths until his tragically premature death at 35. Born in 1756 in Salzburg, Mozart quickly began to spread his wings, but his ambitions were increasingly thwarted by his employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg. It wasn’t until 1781 that he was able to break free and set himself up as a freelance composer and pianist in the Imperial capital Vienna. It was there Mozart produced most of his enduring masterpieces: notably four sublime operas, beginning with The Marriage of Figaro, symphonies, piano concertos (which Mozart played himself with great brilliance), chamber music and a remarkable series of works for his friend, the virtuoso clarinettist Anton Stadler. At first things went well, but in time his fortunes began to decline and his health began to suffer. At his death in 1791 he was working on his magnificent Requiem. It turned out to be his own epitaph.