Mozart
Born in Salzburg, he showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death.
The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons.
He composed more than 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence is profound on subsequent Western art music. Ludwig van Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote: "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years".
Mozart
Born in Salzburg, he showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, Mozart was engaged as a musician at the Salzburg court, ...
HAYDN Quartet in G, Op. 76, No. 1
MOZART “Hunt” Quartet
SCHUBERT “Death and the Maiden” Quartet
DVOŘÁK “American” Quartet
TCHAIKOVSKY Quartet No. 2 in F, Op. 22
Encores by Dittersdorf, Mendelssohn and Borodin
Studio recordings, 1926-29
Total duration: 2hr 35:50
The Budapest Quartet
MOZART Symphony No. 36 ‘Linz’
MOZART Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
MOZART German Dances & Contredanses
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 21 (fragments)
WEBER Die Freischutz Overture
BACH Violin Concerto - 3rd mvt.
DVOŘÁK Karneval Overture
Studio & live recordings, 1933-1951
Total duration: 74:46
Rudolf Serkin, piano
Adolf Busch, violin
Radio-Symfoniorkestret
conducted by Fritz Busch
MOZART Così fan tutte
Live recording, 1940
Total duration: 2hr 21:54
Hjördis Schymberg - Fiordiligi
Helga Görlin - Dorabella
Isa Quensel - Despina
Einar Andersson - Ferrando
Hugo Hasslo - Guglielmo
Sigurd Björling - Alfonso
Royal Swedish Opera Choir & Orchestra
conducted by Fritz Busch
Recorded 1934 & 1935
Total duration: 1hr 56:25
conducted by Fritz Busch
HAYDN Symphony No. 93
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 21
RAVEL Pavane pour une infante défunte
FALLA El Sombrero des Tres Picos, Suite No. 2
VIVALDI L'Estro Armonico: Concerto Grosso No. 11
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
PISTON Toccata
COPLAND El Salón México
Recorded in 1955
Total duration: 2hr 26:56
Walter Gieseking, piano
Rudolf Firkušný, piano
New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Guido Cantelli
Live broadcast recording, 1950
Total duration: 50:59
Fedora Barbieri, alto
Giancinto Prandelli, tenor
Cesare Siepi, bass
La Scala Orchestra & Chorus
conducted by Guido Cantelli