| Contents |
In motion: Don Giovanni -- A beautiful revenge: Piano sonata in A minor [K. 310] -- Leopold Mozart's grandly talented son: Violin concerto in A [K. 219] -- Victoire Jenamy: 'Jeunehomme' concerto [K. 271] -- The lowly viola: Sinfonia concertante in E flat [K. 364] -- Musical homelessness: Idomeneo -- Being praised: Piano sonatas in C, A and F [K. 330, K. 331, K. 332] -- A time when Europe was a beautiful question: Die Entführung aus dem Serail -- A swinging woman: Serenade in C minor [K. 388] -- The enlightened labyrinth: The 'Haydn' quartets -- Eternal questions: Great Mass in C minor [K. 427] -- Blowing and scraping and hitting are fairly simple actions: Quintet in E flat [K. 452] -- Using jokes: Ein musikalischer Spass [K. 522] -- The wandering piano: Fantasia in C minor [K. 475] -- Artistic cunning: 'Se vuol ballare', Le nozze di Figaro -- A happy change in the nature of lament: 'Dove sono i bei momenti', Le nozze di Figaro -- Creating freedom: Don Giovanni -- Convulsive beauty: Don Giovanni -- Despair: Don Giovanni -- Symphonic largesse: Symphonies in E flat, G minor and C [K. 543, K. 550, K. 551] -- Gamblers: Divertimento for string trio in E flat [K. 563] -- Reconciliations: Le nozze di Figaro -- Couples: Così fan tutte -- Unsure fun: Die Zauberflöte -- Indestructibility: Requiem. |
| Abstract |
Mozart is one of the most familiar and beloved icons of our culture, but how much do we really understand of his music, and what can it reveal to us about the great composer? Following Mozart from his youth in Salzburg to his early death; from his close and rivalrous relationship with his father to his romantic attachments; from his hugely successful operas to intimate compositions on the keyboard, the author leads the reader through the major and lesser-known moments of the composer's life and brings alive the teeming, swiveling modernity of eighteenth-century Europe. In this era of rococo painting, surrealist aesthetics, and political turbulence, Mozart reckoned with a searing talent that threatened to overwhelm him, all the while pushing himself to extraordinary feats of musicianship. In this book, we are returned to the volatility of the eighteenth century and hear Mozart's music in all its audacious vividness, gaining fresh perspectives on why his works still move us so intensely today, as we continue to search for a modernity he imagined into being. |
| General note | Originally published in 2021 by Granta Books, Great Britain. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| LCCN | 2023000088 |
| ISBN | 9780374606206 hardcover |
| ISBN | 037460620X hardcover |
| Standard identifier# |
40031827631 |
