Great Masters: Mozart: His Life and Music by Robert Greenberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There's a reason why so many people hold Mozart up as the best of the best, but his actual story is WILD. Between being a child prodigy, the rebellious rock star of the age, battling the jealousy of his peers, his utter, jaw-dropping brilliance in composing, and so much more, it's easy to come up with many, many theories.

Greenberg delightfully distills it down to some great common sense. He was not only composing everything in his head, just transcribing the notes fully formed, but he was a virtuoso in every other way, rocking all the instruments, being hell on apolitical wheels for his sponsors, and being just TOO GOOD at what he was about, often never being anything close to being appreciated in his lifetime. Some, yes, and those who GOT the music were blown away, but it was only repeated listenings and new generations that truly understood what they heard.

And this is no different then than today. Mozart is everywhere and still so very loved, and yet during his lifetime, he'd gone through so much craziness, only to be dumped in a communal grave at age 35, that it's enough for me to start screaming.

Well, maybe I'd couch my scream in the Magic Flute, but you know what I mean.


Great biography! Funny, pretty amazing, and rather more realistic, if not proven, look at his life.

Despite all that, a little part of my heart will always think the move Amadeus is cannon. :)


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