Born in Salzburg in 1756, Mozart could play both the violin and the piano at the age of four and composed music without having learnt the art of composition. As a child prodigy, he amazed and astounded the whole of Europe, although after reaching maturity he was forced to struggle for recognition and a livelihood.
After breaking with his Salzburg masters he moved to Vienna where, during the last ten years of his life, he wrote his greatest symphonies (total of 41) and operas (among others Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Magic Flute). In 1791, while still at work on his “Requiem”, Mozart died in Vienna. With an ease akin to magic he created works which have ever since been recognised as models of classical perfection.
Mozart is without doubt the most popular composer of western classical music of our day and age. During the short span of 35 years that he lived, Mozart composed 41 symphonies, 27 piano concertos, 26 string quartets and 13 full scale operas. He bequeathed to posterity more music than most other composers. The distinguished music critic Joachim Kaiser has estimated that “if Mozart were today paid royalties for every performance of his music on every stage, in every radio and television programme, on every recording worldwide, he would, for instance, be in a position to purchase the whole of Austria—every square inch of the country. Together with every single building.”
The surface charm and technical brilliance of Mozart’s music are deceptive. Beneath the classical poise, run deep emotions felt intensely. He understood human nature in all its complexity and he found music to express this understanding.
Whole libraries of books have been written with the aim of defining the special qualities of Mozart’s art: the perfect balance between his music’s content and form, the immediate impact of his musical expression, the hitherto unknown intensity of his thematic invention, the close spiritual intermingling of melodic line, theme, and periodic symmetry (or asymmetry), above all the relationship between text and music which in Mozart’s works became, for the very first time and in unique fashion, the vehicle for an entirely new sense of reality in the theatre. Mozart’s operatic art represents a towering pinnacle of dramatic flexibility and plasticity of expression.
Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India