Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756, 1791)

The youngest child and only surviving son of the Austrian composer Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus received his early musical training from his father.

His musical talent was evident from infancy and he is now regarded as one of the greatest musical geniuses.

When Wolfgang he was six years old, he and his gifted elder sister, Nannerl, were taken by their father, on the first of a long series of concert tours, to all the royal courts of Europe where they delighted audiences with virtuosic performances on the harpsichord.

Of all the stopping places on Mozart’s tours it was operatic Italy that gave him the greatest pleasure and recognition.

The following period proved disappointing to both father and son.

As the young Mozart grew to manhood his popularity waned and he had difficulty finding employment, but the sense of his own worth carried him past the danger point.

He was eventually given a position as court and cathedral organist in the household of the Archbishop of Salzburg.

Early in 1781 he had a commissioned opera, "Idomeneo", staged in Munich for the Elector of Bavaria.

Its success induced him to go to Vienna where, for a while, he found moderate favour with the nobility.

He spent the last ten years of his life in precarious independence in Vienna, worsened by his ill-advised marriage to the frivolous singer Costanze Weber.

Initial success with German and then Italian opera and a number of subscription concerts were followed by financial difficulties.

These did not affect his music, but in the end they destroyed him physically; he became seriously ill and died a pauper early in the morning on 5th December: he was buried in a common, unmarked grave in Vienna.

Mozart's compositions were catalogued in the 19th century by Köchel, and they are generally now distinguished by K. numbering from this catalogue.