Mozart, (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus

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Austrian composer and performer who was a child prodigy and an adult virtuoso. He was trained by his father, Leopold Mozart (1719–1787). From an early age he composed prolifically, and his works include 27 piano concertos, 23 string quartets, 35 violin sonatas, and 41 symphonies including the E^b K543, G minor K550, and C major K551 (‘Jupiter’) symphonies, all three being composed in 1788. His operas include Idomeneo (1780), Entführung aus dem Serail/The Abduction from the Seraglio (1782), Le nozze di Figaro/The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), Così fan tutte/Thus Do All Women (1790), and Die Zauberflöte/The Magic Flute (1791). Together with the work of Joseph Haydn, Mozart's music marks the height of the classical age in its purity of melody and form.

Mozart's career began when, with his sister, Maria Anna, he was taken on a number of tours in 1762–79, visiting Munich, Vienna, the Rhineland, Holland, Paris, London, and Italy. He had already begun to compose. In 1772 he was appointed master of the archbishop of Salzburg's court band, but did not like the post and in 1781 was suddenly dismissed. He married Constanze Weber in 1782, settled in Vienna, and started a punishing freelance career as a concert pianist, composer, and teacher that brought lasting fame but only irregular financial security. His Requiem, unfinished at his death, was completed by a pupil.

His works were catalogued chronologically in 1862 by the musicologist Ludwig von Köchel (1800–1877) whose system of numbering – giving each work a ‘Köchel number’ – for example, K354 – remains in use in modified form.

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