This year’s Vienna Orchestra New Year Concert is approaching – it’s actually only days away already – and although Strauss’ waltzes are the main elements here, we stop to think about all the music heroes Austria has given us. So today we thought we would give you a one-minute portrait of Mozart, probably the greatest music genius of all time.
Born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would become the greatest classical music composer. Symphonies, concerts, operatic and choral pieces were all counted among the 600 works he wrote in his 35 years. But beyond his brilliant talent, there was a restlessness as well as a fascinating persona that left a long-living mark.
Here are some curiosities about Mozart’s life:
1. Mozart was already playing the clavier when he was 3.
2. Not long after that, he held a private concert for Empress Maria Theresa and amused everyone when he proposed to her daughter, Marie Antoinette, the future notorious last queen of France. They were both children, so life would lead them both in separate ways.
3. Mozart wrote the first modern piano concerts.
4. He wrote his first symphony at 8.
5. Mozart was friends with Joseph Haydn. He dedicated music to Haydn and the two used to play music together. The latter reportedly said that no such outstanding talent would be born for the next 100 years. I guess Haydn was underestimating Wolfgang’s genius!
6. Mozart’s music is rich and sophisticated. But in fact he was also a bon-vivant, a rake, a party-goer who was prone to excess and he often wrote scatological letters to his family and friends.
7. Mozart’s music has even been attributed almost magical powers. There are studies claiming that it can alleviate epilepsy and boost the IQ, while a Swiss sewage treatment company claims it can even help microbes decompose waste from the sewage! Apparently the favorite work is “The Magic Flute”… which was composed for Mozart’s friends, the Masons.
This holiday, listen to a song by Mozart!
