MOZART FOR SOME SATURDAY SERENITY

“Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.” - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Yesterday was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birthday, so for Song Saturday and Saturday Sareenity, what better than a beautiful Mozart adagio? Here is W. A. Mozart’s (1756-1791). Adagio for Violin and Orchestra in E major K261. Andrew Manze is playing baroque violin and conducting The English Concert on authentic instruments.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was no doubt the greatest child star that ever lived. He was traveling all over Europe playing music by the time he was six. Because of his constant travels, Mozart eventually learned to speak fifteen different languages.   He wrote his first sonata for the piano when he was four and composed his first opera when he was twelve. Mozart could compose anywhere - at meals (he loved liver dumplings and sauerkraut), while talking to friends, while playing pool and even while his wife was having a baby.

During his lifetime, Mozart was very well-known but unfortunately, spent money faster than he could earn it. He was poor and in debt when he died of kidney failure at the age of 35 and was buried in an unmarked grave. Mozart is considered by some to be the greatest composer who ever lived. While most composers specialise in certain genres of music, Mozart created masterful works for almost every category of music - vocal music, concertos, chamber music, symphonies, sonatas, and opera.

He composed very quickly and wrote huge amounts of music. It would take over 8 days to play all of his music, one piece after the next, without stopping. He wrote over 600 works during his lifetime, including 41 symphonies, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and 27 piano concertos. Three of his most famous operas include “The Marriage of Figaro”, “The Magic Flute” and “Don Giovanni”. He is also famous for the last piece he ever wrote, his Requiem mass, which he left incomplete.