Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Chrysostom

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

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was able to play the harpsichord at the age of three and a year later was composing music.

His father was a violinist and he took Wolfgang and his elder sister, Marianne, on concert tours all over Europe.

On a visit to England at the age of eight, Wolfgang wrote his first symphony.

By the time he was fourteen he was well known for his symphonies, operas and other compositions.

For a time, up to 1781, Mozart worked for the Archbishop of Salzburg, but the Archbishop was not a music-lover, and Mozart left him and went to live in Vienna. After that, he did not have a job and had to try to obtain money by making concert tours. The constant traveling and hard work tired him out and he died at the age of thirty-five.

Mozart poured out music of all kinds from dance music to sacred music. His operas like The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute are among the most popular works with opera-lovers all over the world.

He also wrote concertos for many instruments of the orchestra, from the piano and violin, to the flute and harp.

He did not leave enough money for his funeral and was buried in a poor man's grave, no one knows exactly where.

See Alfred Einstein Mozart: His Character, His Work

Hear Mozart Edition: Complete Works (170 CD Box Set)