Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was the second of nine children of Leopold Mozart and Maria Anna Thekla Mozart. His father’s music-loving mother and their devout German country parson father Joseph Haydn (1732-1806), formed the core of his early musical education.

When he was six, even before learning to read, he was already composing short piano pieces, such as ‘Sonate, no. 1’, and was composing duets for a friend of his mother. He was not much interested in the school work the boys had to do, preferring to play in the garden or run about. He learned by observing his mother’s sister and her piano lessons.

Mozart’s great success came from the performance of Idomeneo, his most challenging opera to write.