...74 to mid-1777 as spent in Salzburg, here Mozart orked as Konzertmeister at the Prince- Archbishops court his orks of these years include masses, symphonies, all his violin concertos, six piano sonatas, several serenades and divertimentos and his first great piano concerto, K271. In 1777 the Mozarts, seeing limited opportunity in Salzburg for a composer so hugely gifted, resolved to seek a post elsehere for olfgang. He as sent, ith his mother, to Munich and to Mannheim, but as offered no position though he stayed over four months at Mannheim, composing for piano and flute and falling in love ith Aloysia eber. His father then dispatched him to Paris there he had minor successes, notably ith his Paris Symphony, no.31, deftly designed for the local taste. But prospects there ere poor and Leopold ordered him home, here a superior post had been arranged at the court. He returned sloly and alone his mother had died in Paris. The years 1779-80 ere spent in Salzburg, playing in the cathedral and at court, composing sacred orks, symphonies, concertos, serenades and dramatic music. But opera remained at the centre of his ambitions, and an opportunity came ith a commission for a serious opera for Munich. He ent there to compose it late in 1780 his correspondence ith Leopold through hom he communicated ith the librettist, in Salzburg is richly informative about his approach to musical drama. The ork, Idomeneo, as a success. In it Mozart depicted serious, heroic emotion ith a richness unparalleled elsehere in his orks, ith vivid orchestral riting and an abundance of profoundly expressive orchestral recitative. Mozart as then summoned from Munich to Vienna, here the Salzburg court as in residence on the accession of a ne emperor. Fresh from his success, he found himself placed beteen the valets and the cooks his resentment toards his employer, exacerbated by the Prince-Archbishops refusal to let him perform at events the emperor as attending, soon led to conflict, and in May 1781 he resigned, or as kicked out of, his job. He anted a post at the Imperial court in Vienna, but as content to do freelance ork in a city that apparently offered golden opportunities. He made his living over the ensuing years by teaching, by publishing his music, by playing at patrons houses or in public, by composing to commission particularly operas in 1787 he obtained a minor court post as Kammermusicus, hich gave him a reasonable salary and required nothing beyond the riting of dance music for court balls. He alays earned, by musicians standards, a good income, and had a carriage and servants through lavish spending and poor management he suffered times of financial difficulty and had to borro. In 1782 he married Constanze eber, Aloysias younger sister. In his early years in Vienna, Mozart built up his reputation by publishing sonatas for piano, some ith violin, by playing the piano and, in 1782, by having an opera performed Die Entfhrung aus dem Serail, a German Singspiel hich ent far beyond the usual limits of the tradition ith its long, elaborately ritten songs hence Emperor Joseph IIs famous observation, Too many notes, my dear Mozart. The ork as successful and as taken into the repertories of many provincial companies for hich Mozart as not hoever paid. In these years, too, he rotesix strings quartettshich he dedicated to the master of the form, Haydn they are marked not only by their variety of expression but by their complex textures, conceived as four-part discourse, ith the musical ideas linked to this freshly integrated treatment of the medium.Haydentold Mozarts father that Mozart as the greatest composer knon to me in person or by name he has taste and, hat is more, the greatest knoledge of composition. In 1782 Mozart embarked on the composition of piano concertos, so that he could appear both as composer and soloist. He rote 15 before the end of 1786, ith early 1784 as the peak of activity. They represent one of his greatest achievements, ith their formal mastery, their subtle relationships beteen piano and orchestra the ind instruments especially and their combination of brilliance, lyricism and symphonic groth. In 1786 he rote the first of his three comic operas ith Lorenzo da Ponte as librettist, Le nozze di Figaro here and in Don Giovanni given in Prague, 1787 Mozart treats the interplay of social and sexual tensions ith keen insight into human character that - as again in the more artificial sexual comedy of Cosi fan tutte 1790 - transcends the comic frameork, just as Die Zauberflte 1791 transcends, ith its elements of ritual and allegory about human harmony and enlightenment, the orld of the Viennese popular theatre from hich it springs. Mozart lived in Vienna for the rest of his life. He undertook a number of joumeys to Salzburg in 1783, to introduce his ife to his family to Prague three times, for concerts and operas to Berlin in 1789, here he had hopes of a post to Frankfurt in 1790, to play at coronation celebrations. The last Prague journey as for the premiere of La clemenza di Tito 1791, a traditional serious opera ritten for coronation celebrations, but composed ith a finesse and economy characteristic of Mozarts late music. Instrumental orks of these years include some piano sonatas, three string quartets ritten for the King of Prussia, some string quintets, hich include one of his most deeply felt orks K516 in g Minor and one of his most nobly spacious K515 in C, and his last four symphonies - one no.38 in D composed for Prague in 1786, the others ritten in 1788 and forming, ith the lyricism of no.39 in E-flat, the tragic suggestiveness of no.40 in g Minor and the grandeur of no.41 in C, a climax to his orchestral music. His final orks include the Clarinet Concerto and some pieces for masonic lodges he had been a freemason since 1784 masonic teachings no doubt affected his thinking, and his compositions, in his last years. At his death from a feverish illness hose precise nature has given rise to much speculation he as not poisoned, he left unfinished the Requiem, his first large-scale ork for the church since the c Minor Mass of 1783, also unfinished a completion by his pupil Sssmayr as long accepted as the standard one but there have been recent attempts to improve on it. Mozart as buried in a Vienna suburb, ith little ceremony and in an unmarked grave, in accordance ith prevailing custom. ...
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