Featured on: Viotti/Mozart cdc 010

Mozart was an artist in the fullest sense of the term. Both dissolute and a genius he was able to reconcile opposites: the objective and the subjective, artistic purity and human reality, the levity of melodies and depth of thought, the absolute and the relative. He passed easily from comic music which was apparently shallow to music of much greater complexity and of great artistic merit. For Mozart every musical form was an opportunity for the experience of inspiration and amusement. He could do everything and he did everything well. He was an organist, a pianist, a harpsichord player, a violinist, a conductor -

everything he did was done with extraordinary talent. During his concert tours, which were held all over Eurospe, he never failed to astonish those who heard him. Such was the case in Munich, Frankfurt, Brussels, Aquisgrana, Paris, London, Prague, and Italy.
Mozart achieved success very quickly - thirty-five years of life would suffice to raise his name to the heights of musical history. These thirty-five years were marked by difficulties, incomprehension, joys, and bitterness. An epoch would finish with the death of Mozart. Eurospe was already shaken by upheavals and music was taking part in the changes which were then underway. After the passing of Mozart, it was Beethoven who would express to the full the figure of the musician who composes for himself and not for other people.

Chronology:

1756	Born (27 January) in Salzburg, the son of Johann Leopold and Anna Maria Pertl (1720-78).
1761	First composition - a minuet and trio for pianoforte.
1763	Goes to Paris where he stays for five months. His first sonatas for violin and pianoforte.
1764	Goes to London where he stays for fifteen months. He meets Karl Friedrich Abel and Johann Christian Bach. He writes his first symphony (E flat major K16).
1769	On 14 November he is appointed third maestro of concerts (unpaid) at the Salzburg court. In December he starts on the first of his three trips to Italy. In Rome he receives the order of the "Sperone d'Oro" from Pope XIV in person.
1770	On 5 January he performs his first concert in Italy at the Accademia Filarmonica of Vienna. He receives lessons in counterpoint from Padre Martini. Giuseppe Tartini dies on 26 February. Beethoven is born on 17 December.
1778	On 3 July his mother dies. In December the Teatro della Scala in Milan opens in Milan.
1779	The singer Aloisa Weber rejects his offer of marriage. He returns to Vienna and enters the service of the Archbishop of that city as maestro of concerts and court organist.
1781	On 10 May he resigns his post with the Archbishop.
1782	Marries Constanze Weber after eloping with her because of her father's strong opposition. On 27 October Nicoḷ Paganini is born.
1783	He meets Gluck.
1785	A very active professional life with concerts and activity in musical academies. He becomes a "companion" - the second rung in the order of freemasons. He meets Haydn. Refused admission to the Society of Musicians.
1786	Finishes "Le Nozze di Figaro" which is then performed at the Burgtheater on 1 May.
1787	On 28 May Leopold Mozart dies aged sixty-eight. On 29 October "Il Dissoluto Punito Ossia il Don Giovanni" is performed for the first time, in Prague, and is received with enthusiasm.
1790	On 26 January "Cosi fan Tutte Ossia la Scuola degli Amanti" is put on for the first time, at the Burgtheater. Mozart's financial problems worsen.
1791	He performs for the last time in public - the concerto for pianoforte K595. In May he begins work on "Die Zauberflote" (The Magic Flute) a German opera which in July he interrupts to write "La Clemenza di Tito", a work which he finishes on 5 September and which is performed in Prague the next day. In September he finishes "Die Zauberflote". On 20 November he falls ill and is confined to bed. On 4 December he tries out his "Requiem" - a work he would never complete. On 5 December he dies at one o'clock in the morning. His funeral is that of a poor man and is attended by a few close relatives and friends. His coffin is placed in the common grave at the cemetery of S. Marco in Vienna.