Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was an Austrian composer. He performed as a virtuoso harpsichordist, violinist, organist and conductor, and also improvised brilliantly. He studied with his father, Leopold Mozart, and also with Giovanni Battista Marini. He started composing his first works when he turned 5 years old. From the age of 6 he performed with great success, going on tours in Germany, Austria, France, Great Britain, Switzerland and Italy. In 1769-1781 he served as a court musician for the Archbishop of Salzburg.
In 1781, following a conflict with the Archbishop of Salzburg, having chosen the lot of a freelance artist, Mozart moved to Vienna, where he performed in concerts in academies; then he composed his operas “The Abduction from the Seraglio” and “The Marriage of Figaro.” In 1787 there was a production of his opera “Don Giovanni,” in Prague; at that time he was appointed the position of a musician in the court of Emperor Joseph II. In 1788 he wrote his three most famous symphonies – N.39, N.40 and N.41. In 1791 Mozart composed his opera “The Magic Flute” and began composing his “Requiem” (which was completed by Franz Xaver Süssmayr after Mozart’s death).
Mozart is a representative of the Viennese Classicist trend, one of the creators of the Classical style in music, connected with the development of symphonic writing as the highest type of musical thinking, a completed system of classical instrumental genres (the symphony, sonata and string quartet), the classical norms of musical language, its functional organization.
In Mozart’s music the artistic experience of various epochs, national schools and traditions of folk music are organically implemented together. He was greatly influenced by the Italian composers of his time, the representatives of the Manheim School, as well as his elder contemporaries – Joseph Haydn, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Johann Christian Bach and Carl Philip Emanuel Bach.
In the music of Mozart the idea of harmony as the basis of a perspective of the world and its reflection in art had acquired universal significance. His compositions are characterized by psychological veracity and naturalness, clarity and beauty. The sublime and the ordinary, the eternal and the transient, the universal and the individually inimitable, the tragic and the comic, the lyrical and the dramatic, the majestic and the graceful are all present in the composer’s music in a dynamic balance and unity.
At the core of Mozart’s artistic world lies human personality, which he reveals in a multi-faceted way. The dramaturgy of Mozart’s music is based on the disclosure of contrasting images in the process of their interaction. Mozart’s style is distinguished by its expressivity of intonation, flexible suppleness, cantilena style, resplendence, ingenuity of melodicism and interpenetration of instrumental and vocal characteristics. In his compositions brilliant virtuosity is combined with inspiration, poetic insight and finesse.
Among his compositions there is a number of operas, including “Idomeneo,” “The Abduction from Seraglio,” “The Marriage of Figaro,” “Don Giovanni,” “Cosi fan tutte” and “The Magic Flute;” works for soloists, chorus and orchestra, including oratorios, cantatas, masses and the “Requiem;” works for orchestra, including symphonies, serenades, divertimentos, cassations and concertos for solo instruments and orchestra; works for chamber ensembles; works for piano, including sonatas, variations, minuets, rondos and fantasias; works for chorus; songs, arias and works for choral ensembles.
