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, ...
MOZART Die Zauberflöte
Studio recording, 1954
Total duration: 2hr 22:44
Tamino - Ernst Haefliger
Papageno - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Königin der Nacht - Rita Streich
Sprecher - Kim Borg
Pamina - Maria Stader
Sarastro - Josef Greindl
RIAS Kammerchor & RIAS-Symphonie-Orchester
conducted by Ferenc Fricsay
MOZART Die Zauberflöte
MOZART Symphony No. 39 in E flat
Die Zauberflöte Recorded Salzburg, 6 August 1951. Total duration: 2hr 51:54
Symphony No. 39 Recorded Berlin, 8 February 1944. Total duration: 27:59
Wilma Lipp, Königin Der Nacht
Irmgard Seefried, Pamina
Anton Dermota, Tamino
Vienna State Opera Chorus
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Wilhelm Furtwängler, Conductor
Stereo recording, 1959
Total duration: 2hr 42min
Joan Sutherland - Donna Anna
Luigi Alva - Don Ottavio
Gottlob Frick - Commendatore
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf - Donna Elvira
Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus
Conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini
MOZART Symphony No. 39
HAYDN Symphony No. 95
Recorded 1953
Total duration: 47:22
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
(appearing as Glyndebourne Festival Orchestra)
conducted by Vittorio Gui
BACH Concerto for Two Violins in D minor
MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
LALO Symphonie Espagnole
BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1
BEETHOVEN Romance No. 1 in G
SAINT-SAËNS Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
Studio recordings, 1919-1925
Total duration: 2hr 14:43
Arthur Catterall, violin
John S. Bridge, violin
William Murdoch, piano
Daisy Kennedy, violin
Leo Strockoff, violin
Albert Sammons, violin
Orchestra conducted by Hamilton Harty
MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition
MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5, K.219 'Turkish'
KORNGOLD Violin Concerto in D
Studio and Live recordings, 1947
Total duration: 77:27
Vladimir Horowitz, piano
Jascha Heifetz, violin
New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Efrem Kurtz