Ein Moment aus den Letzten Tagen Mozarts (A Moment from Mozart's Final Days) by Franz Schramm - c. 1850
This is the earliest portraiture, a lithograph, depicting Mozart's final hours as he was attempting to communicate and advise passages of the Requiem to his colleague Franz Xaver Süssmayr.
Mozart is the most celebrated musician in Austria. The Statue of Mozart in the Burggarten in Vienna (Wien) was created in 1896 and shows the composer standing in a scene from Don Giovanni. It originally stood in the Albertinaplatz, and was heavily damaged by bombing in WWII. After extensive restoration in 1953, the Mozart Statue was moved to the current site in the Burggarten near to the Hofburg Imperial Palace.
Mozart Statue in Burggarten
Panorama showing the statue of Mozart in the Burggarten in Vienna. The statue stands in it's own separate area and within the area before it is a flower planting laid out in the shape of treble clef
Now sit back and enjoy
~2 Videos~
of glorious Mozart music.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, K. 447 III. Rondo
The Gemaeldegalerie, an art gallery in Berlin, recently announced the discovery of a painting depicting composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Painted in 1790 by the German artist Johann Georg Edlinger, the work is probably the last portrait of the composer, according to art experts. Mozart died on December 5, 1791.
Mozart's last moments
Viva Mozart: An Anthology of Appreciation
This out of print book is hard to find but it is a real treasure to have once you find it.
Mozart's genius for writing great music did not diminish during 1791, his last year of life. He produced great works such as The Magic Flute (German: Die Zauberflöte, K.620) opera in two acts and the wonderful Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622 not long before his death.
In late 1791 The Requiem Mass in D minor K.626 was to be Mozart's last composition and was uncompleted at Mozart's death (later completed by Mozart's assistant Franz Xaver Süssmayr). This was a commissioned work by a Count Walsegg who desired a requiem for his own funeral, However, Mozart was certain he was writing this piece for his own funeral. During the period of October 8 to November 20, 1791 Mozart worked on the Requiem and a cantata.
Listen
to an excerpt from Mozart's Requiem in D Minor, K626.
W.A. Mozart Requiem in D Minor, K626: 1. Introitus: Requiem — sample (This intro section is wholly composed by Mozart.)
In November 1791 Mozart became very ill and on November 20 he was confined to his bed due to his illness. Mozart died in Vienna on December 5, 1791, just before 1:00 AM. Although it is not known for certain the cause of Mozart's death, he might have died from something far more commonplace at the time: a streptococcal infection – possibly strep throat – that led to kidney failure.
Because he died penniless and in considerable debt to friends and acquaintances, he was given a rather cheap funeral at Saint Stephen's Cathedral. He was later buried in an unmarked common grave at the cemetery of Saint Marx in a Viennese suburb. His actual grave has never been found.
On December 10, 1791 the uncompleted Requiem was performed at a memorial for Mozart by the staff of the Theater auf der Wieden. By early March 1792 the Requiem was completed by Süssmayr. In 1809 the Requiem was performed at a memorial service for Joseph Haydn. In 1849 the Requiem was performed at Frédéric Chopin's funeral.
The Greatest Tragedy in the History of Music
According to H.C. Robbins Landon, author, musicologist and Mozart expert the last month of the year 1791 witnessed ‘the greatest tragedy in the history of music’: the premature death of the 35-year-old Mozart.
Imagine what other great music might have flowed from Mozart had he lived into old age. Other great composers who lived much longer than Mozart, such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, had yet to write their greatest works by the age of 35. So it is a musical tragedy that Mozart died so young.
Richard Wagner called him “the greatest musical genius who ever
lived.” Not many would disagree with that.
Mozart Appreciations
The book Viva Mozart: An Anthology of Appreciation (This wonderful book is out of print but available used on the Internet.) is a chronological listing of Mozart "appreciators" beginning with the earliest and ending with the modern. What follows are some quotes from the book. What I got from this book is that Mozart has had a profound affect on virtually every great composer since his time. and perhaps none more than Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky had a lifelong admiration of Mozart and to him Mozart was “the musical Christ”. Here is an excerpt from Tchaikovsky's “Diaries” (1886):
"Mozart I love as the musical Christ... Mozart was a being so angelic, so childlike, so pure; his music is so full of unapproachable, divine beauty, that if anyone could be named with Christ, then it is he."
The following comes near the end of a long letter to Nadezhda von Meck where Tchaikovsky is trying passionately to convert her into a Mozart-admirer, March 28, 1878:
"Mozart is responsible for my having dedicated my life to music. He gave the first impetus to my musical strength; he made me love music more than anything else in the world..........Now I must ask your forgiveness for speaking at such length about Mozart. But how could I not want my dear, best, incomparable friend to worship the one I worship over all musicians? How could I not try to make you feel moved and carried away by that music which makes me tremble with indescribable bliss?"
Antonín Dvorák, who said that Mozart reminded him of sunshine, was quoted in the New York Herald, January 14, 1884:
"Mozart! Ah, Mozart is the greatest of them all. Beethoven is grand. His works are always sublime in conception and sublime in working out. But it is awe that he inspires, while Mozart touches my heart. His melodies are so lovable, are so inspired and so inspiring, that only to hear them is the greatest enjoyment that exists in the world for me."
Antonín, it's like you took the words right out of my mouth.
So if someone was to ask me what it is I experience when listening to Mozart, I would say that listening to Mozart is like "basking in a warm radiance of sunshine".
"They are rays lost in the sun of Mozart."
~Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky~
(Comparing Bach, Handel, Gluck, and Haydn to Mozart)
'Life Without Mozart' (Desolate landscape with empty bottle, tin can, pencil, and old tire.)
Published in The New Yorker 12/17/1979
by Mick Stevens
SKU:119054
'Life