The Life Of Mozart

by Edward Holmes, David Case (Narrator)

Edward Holmes, a schoolfellow of Keats, provides the first complete account of Mozart, based upon Mozart's own letters and memoirs. In this biography, written long before the significance of Mozart's work was fully realized, Holmes captures his struggles, his influence on art and the brilliant reputations that surrounded him.

Genres: Music, Biography, History, Nonfiction, Audiobook

1 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1781 Mozart had to prepare on short notice for a concert in Vienna at which three of his new works would be premiered. One of them was a sonata for clavier and violin “which I composed between eleven and twelve [the night before the event]; but in order to be ready, wrote out only the violin part for Brunetti, and retained my own in my head…”

This is what genius looks like. Unfortunately for Mozart, he wasn’t paid for this concert. His patron, the prince-archbishop of Salzburg, was a stingy and jealous man. Traveling with the archbishop’s retinue in Vienna, Mozart was expected to eat with the cooks and valets. Yet his father Leopold had urged him to take the position in Salzburg since full time, regular, paying gigs were extremely hard to come by (even though his groundbreaking opera Idomeneo had just premiered to delighted raves). Leopold had written Mozart when he was nineteen urging him “not to throw yourself away” – not to expend effort on piddling things, not to give away his genius for nothing – “I am as little a friend to servility of conduct as yourself.”

Leopold Mozart has been portrayed as the ultimate “stage mother.” But this is hardly fair. The voluminous correspondence among the members of the Mozart family show them to be very loving and devoted to each other. Leopold’s letters are full of sage advice, not only on his son’s music (Leopold was a composer, violinist, violin teacher, and Kapellmeister) and career, but on all matters large and small. Writing to the 22 year old Wolfgang about the dangers of acquaintances who don’t have one’s best interests at heart, he admonishes, “Of the other sex I can hardly speak to you, for there the greatest reserve and prudence are necessary, Nature herself being our enemy; but whoever does not employ all his prudence and reserve in his intercourse, will with difficulty extricate himself from the labyrinth – a misfortune that usually ends in death.” [If only Schubert’s father had written him the same letter.] He adds later, “I am persuaded that you do not only consider me as your father, but as your truest and most faithful friend…” No detail was too small for Leopold – he instructs Wolfgang on how he notes down anything he wishes to write in his next letter, so he won’t forget it – “You might do the same. I strike my pen through such memoranda as are the subject of my letter…” and finishes with “and you, my dear wife, must put the lines closer together in writing; - you see how I do it.” It sounds micromanagey, but no one in the family seems to ever have taken offense when they gently upbraided each other.

If all of your Mozart knowledge is from the movie Amadeus, hrrmm. The portrayal of a giggling, incessantly exuberant idiot savant assclown does a horrible disservice to the man (and boy) revealed by the letters: highly intelligent, in love with language, punning, even-tempered, forgiving. Perhaps surprising to some, deeply devout (following in his father’s footsteps). He could occasionally be crude – at age 14 he wrote to his sister that he composed “as pigs pee” – but Christopher Hogwood, the book’s editor, notes that his mother was not above scatological references herself, and this was common in 18th century Salzburg. He also tells us that Amadeus is the one form of his name Mozart never used; “he always signed Amadé or Amadeo.”

Mozart was magnanimous to his friends. When Michael Haydn (the brother of Joseph) was sick and unable to complete some violin/viola duets he had been commissioned to write, and was going to lose salary because of it, Mozart wrote the duets for him and they were submitted as Haydn’s (they are now correctly attributed).

The difficulties facing a composer in Mozart’s day were almost overwhelming. If one didn’t have a well paid court appointment, not only did commissions have to be obtained and subscriptions for concerts procured, but there was no copyright protection. Unscrupulous copyists (those who copied the original score for the musicians and for the publisher) would sometimes claim a work as their own. If Mozart lent scores to his friends he would have to admonish them never to let the work out of their sight. For this reason, he often traveled with only a bare bones outline of his piano concertos – he knew all the missing notes, but no one else would. After a successful opera premiered, he would have to quickly score it for wind band (of the type that played outdoors in Vienna’s public parks), otherwise others would do it and reap the financial profits.

Sometimes Mozart did not even have time to play a just-composed piano concerto through – as with the great D minor concerto, K466. The day before he premiered it, the copyist was still working and Mozart didn’t have time to play the rondo once through because he had to check the copyist’s work. Having finished all of Don Giovanni except the overture, he partied the day and night before the dress rehearsal, getting drowsy on punch, and his wife Constanze had to keep him awake telling fairy tales and funny stories as he wrote it. But he dropped into a deep slumber, and she awoke him at 5 a.m. The music copyists were coming at 7 a.m. By the time they arrived, he was finished. The parts were then brought to the orchestra covered in sand, 45 minutes after the performance was supposed to start, and the orchestra sight-read the overture.

There are some errors of fact in Edward Holmes’ 1845 biography; for example, he opines that Mozart wrote the entire Requiem himself and says we know this because there exists a whole copy in his handwriting. But Hogwood says this has been disproven. Other errors (Holmes mistaking one person for another is fairly common) are noted in Hogwood’s footnotes.

[Sotiris Makrygiannis · Rating 2 out of 5]

The voice of this audiobook is very good. The subject is the Life of Mozart, this is more a list of all his work and the period. There is no real emphasis on real day life but has some glimpses like his father relationship (that was good and helped him). There was an advisor called Cannabis, so was funny to hear Cannabis this and that. Anyway, Mozart was a genius, imagine that he was recognized as a genius at 12.

[Stephen Tubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a bit dry in the telling but it is also informative.

[Fred Eisenhut · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography was written in 1845 and my edition of the book is from The Folio Society in London. This biography gives a very different story of Mozart from the movie "Amadeus."
One of the things that struck me was to constant debt that piled up year after year in Mozarts life. Evidently, the rich and powerful did not pay very much. ( A Pocket watch as payment?? Really??)
Then as now Mozart was hurt by others who stole his work, reprinted his music and left him with nothing for his work. I hear things are not much different now.
This is an interesting read.

[Mark Hickman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not an easy read. Very dry in fact. The one good thing I will say is that it paints Mozart in a far better light than some fictional work.

[Justa Guy]

The 18th century language is brainrot.

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

For an almost 170 year old book, this one has held up quite well. I'm not a big fan of classical music, but I do appreciate it, and I appreciated the movie "Amadeus" for it's humor and it's depiction of the at times manic Mozart. I got some of that sense from this book as well - some of the bits from the movie were pulled from this book, including the famous line from an early benefactor that his music had "too many notes". This book does spend a lot of time on his early years, quite possibly because Mozart's father must have kept good records. And you get to hear about a time when wealthy patrons could play off their sponsored prodigies against each other - something which struck me as being replaced now-a-days by the wealthy buying sports teams. I found it very interesting, almost like the young Mozart was like a prize baseball pitcher and his father his traveling companion and manager. In Mozart's later years he was like a wily free agent, chasing after the money and the opportunity. This is a straight-up biography - I didn't notice any major perversions, peccadillos, or conspiracies that tend to mark biographies of today. Except for that bit about Salieri denying poisoning him at the end of his life (which is attributed to him in the movie, but not exactly here). I marked it down a star because it became snooze inducing at times based on descriptions from long letters, and if I were reading it instead of listening to the audiobook, it might not have completed it.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I probably enjoyed this one more because I adore Mozart, but I still think it was an amazing history of an extremely talented person. I particularly enjoyed as Mozart's father, Leopold discovers his son's talent at the early age of 4. He sees his son copying notes while writing a concerto. After Leopold's friend laughingly said "no on could play the concerto because it was too difficult," Mozart played it on the piano. Now if I could only go to Salzburg... :)

[Peter Galamaga · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm conceding defeat here. I hearby add this book to the handful of books I've given up on in my life.

To be fair, this is an audio book and the problem may be with the narrator - very nasally British voice - sounds almost like a caricature of a British butler.

The story of Mozart's life IS fascinating - but the numerous - and oven dull - details became too much to bear after 5 hours of listening.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

The narrator and author managed to make the life of Mozart boring. I didn't think that was possible...