Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91) was an Austrian composer. He began to compose at a very early age and performed in public from the age of six. His many compositions include symphonies, chamber music, operas and choral works. They are all light and graceful in the classical style. He had a gift for learning from the music of other composers, notably Johann Christian Bach and Joseph Haydn, from which he developed his own unique style. Many people consider Mozart to be the finest classical composer of all.

Early life

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27th January 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. The next day he was christened Johannes Chrysostomus Wolgangus Theophilus Mozart (he called himself Wolfgang Amadè Mozart as an adult). Wolfgang was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died young. His father, Leopold, was a teacher and composer. Mozart began to play the piano at the age of four and was soon writing simple compositions.

His father quickly recognized his musical talent and, when Mozart was only six, sent him and his older sister Nannerl to perform together in the main royal courts across Europe. While on tour, Mozart met several famous musicians, including Johann Christian Bach, son of the great Johann Sebastian Bach, and wrote operas and other works.

Success as a composer

At the end of the final tour in 1773, Mozart, still aged only 16, became employed as a court musician to the Prince-Archbishop and ruler of Salzburg. Here he wrote five violin concertos and a series of piano concertos that established him as a composer. Fed up with the low pay and lack of opportunities in Salzburg, Mozart left the court in 1777 and travelled first to Paris for a year and then, in 1781, to Vienna, where he decided not to seek a new employer but worked as a freelance composer, teacher and performer.

In Vienna, he met the composer Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), who told Mozart’s father that his son “is the greatest composer known to me”. During this period, Mozart composed numerous string quartets, piano concertos and other works. His opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, premiered in 1782, became a huge success, and established his reputation as a composer.

In 1782 Mozart married Constanze Weber. The couple had six children, although only two survived infancy. A few years later, Mozart became busy with writing a stream of magnificent operas, string quartets, symphonies and concertos.

Although very successful as a composer, Mozart spent lavishly and was often short of money, having to borrow from friends. While in Prague in 1791 for the first performance of his opera The Marriage of Figaro, he fell ill. He died in Vienna on 5th December 1791. He was aged just 35.

Compositions

Mozart composed in the popular classical style of the day. Although immediately attractive and tuneful, his music is technically complex. His best music can express humour or sorrow with effortless mastery. He composed more than 600 pieces of music during his short life. Among his many works are 23 operas, 18 masses to be performed in church, 41 symphonies for full orchestra, 27 concertos for piano and orchestra, 5 violin and 4 horn concertos, 36 violin sonatas, 23 string quartets and many other chamber works.

Operas

In his early operas, Mozart followed the two traditional forms of opera: opera seria (which is serious in content) and opera buffa (which is comic). His first great opera was Idomeneo (1781). Mozart wrote his greatest operas during the last five years of his life: The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), Cosi Fan Tutte (1790) and The Magic Flute (1791). These extend the traditional forms to a higher level.