Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the great icons of Western music. An
amazing prodigy who toured the capitals of Europe as a child,
astonishing royalty and professional musicians with his precocious
skills, in his adulthood he wrote some of the finest music in the
European tradition.
Julian Rushton offers a concise and up-to-date
biography of this musical genius, combining a well-researched life of
the composer with an introduction to the works--symphonic, chamber,
sacred, and theatrical--of one of the few who have composed undisputed
masterpieces in every genre of his
time. Rushton presents a vivid
portrait, ranging from Mozart the Wunderkind--travelling with his family
from Salzburg to Vienna, Paris, London, Rome, and Milan--to the mature
composer of perennially fascinating operas such as "The Marriage of
Figaro," "Don Giovanni," and "The Magic Flute." During
the past
half-century, scholars have thoroughly explored Mozart's life and music,
offering new interpretations based on their historical context, and
providing a factual basis for confirming or more often debunking,
fanciful accounts of the man and his work. Rushton takes full advantage
of these
biographical and musical studies as well as the definitive
New Mozart Edition to provide an accurate account of Mozart's life and,
equally important, an insightful look at the music itself, complete with
illustrative musical examples.
An engaging biography for general
readers that will also be an informative resource for scholars, this new
addition to the prestigious Master Musicians series puts forward an
authoritative interpretation of one of the defining figures of European
culture.
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